David T. (David Talbot) Day

David Talbot Day, Ph.D., was an American chemist and geologist who analyzed petroleum resources, and particularly the extraction of minerals from oil shale. He established the Mineral Resources Division of the US Geological Survey where he pioneered petrochemical fractionation and analysis using chromatographic techniques. Day was born in East Rockport (Lakewood), Ohio. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where Day went to school before joining Johns Hopkins University. He graduated AB in 1881 and took an interest in chemistry, studying …