Awards & Scholarships

Dr. Albert Geyer Loomis has been the owner and Chief Analyst of the Loomis Laboratories, Berkeley, California since 1963.

He received his A.B. and A.M. degrees from the University of Missouri, and he holds a Ph.D. from the University of California. After teaching briefly at the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri, he went to Washington, D. C. to serve as a Physical Chemist in the Helium Division of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. His work there helped to change the element helium from a laboratory curiosity to an industrial commodity. He later worked with the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh and from 1929-1935 he was the Senior Fellow for Gulf Oil Corporation, Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, and Chief Chemist, Gulf Research and Development Company, Pittsburgh.

From 1935-1945, he served with the Shell Development Company in California as the Chemist in charge of Petroleum Production Research and as Assistant and later Associate Director of the company. Under his direction, oil base mud was developed, as was the modern concept of the role of capillary forces in the production of oil. Dr. Loomis again returned to the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1948 as a Research Engineer where he served until his retirement in 1963.

Dr. Loomis holds numerous patents and has published many papers in the fields of petroleum engineering and physical chemistry. In 1963, he was awarded the Department of Interior Distinguished Service Medal by Secretary Udall.