page_title: Hoyt C. Hottel
section_title: Professional life
hierarchical_section_title: Hoyt C. Hottel / Professional life
caption_attribution_description: Solar House
context_page_description: Hoyt Clarke Hottel was a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an expert on energy, radiant heat transfer, fire, fuels and combustion.
  In 1984, he wrote the often quoted words "A case can be made for fire being, next to the life processes, the most complex of phenomena to understand".
context_section_description: Hottel received his first degree, BSc, in chemistry from the Indiana University in 1922. He then joined MIT and received the SM in chemical engineering in 1924. He was named an assistant professor in 1928, associate professor in 1931 and full professor in 1941. In 1965 he was named the first Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering. He became professor emeritus in 1968.
  Hottel was in charge of solar energy research program at MIT from the late 1930s to the mid-1960s. This involved research on non-biological uses of solar energy by humanity. The work led to develop the first accurate analytical models for solar heat collectors. The modeling and testing work on led to what is currently known as the Hottel-Whillier model of the flat plate collector.
  During World War II, he was chief of the National Defense Research Committee group that studied and developed incendiaries. He chaired the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project Panel on Thermal Radiation from 1949-56.
  From 1956-67 he chaired the National Academy of Sciences Fire Research committee, which studied tactics to fight large fires, including forest fires and fire storms in urban areas. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
  Hottel co-authored three books, contributed sections to 15 others and wrote more than 150 technical papers while acquiring eight patents.
caption: MIT Solar House #1 (1939)[3]
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