Maass, O. (Otto), 1890-1961

Otto Maass was born in New York, but moved to Montréal at an early age. He earned his B.A. from McGill in 1911 and his M.Sc. in 1913. His postgraduate research at the University of Berlin was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, at which time Maass accepted a lectureship at McGill. He left to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard (1919), but returned in 1923 as Macdonald Professor of Physical Chemistry. He was appointed chairman of the department in 1937. During the Second World War, Maass combined the administration of chemical defence research with the directorship of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute. After his retirement in 1955, he became principal research officer in the National Research Council’s division of chemistry. He passed away in 1961.