Joseph H. Simons (10 May 1897 – 30 December 1983) was a U.S. chemist who became famous for discovering one of the first practical ways to mass-produce fluorocarbons in the 1930s while a professor of chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University.
After graduation in 1919 he continued chemistry and mathematics at the University of California, where in 1922, he received a master's degree and in 1923 a doctorate.
[2] In 1940, he was recruited to the Manhattan project by Harold Urey, a physical chemist with expertise in isotope separation, to help with uranium enrichment necessary to build a nuclear bomb.
Simons's fluorocarbons turned out to be inert enough to withstand the corrosive effects of uranium hexafluoride and thus could be used as factory parts in the chemical array of sealants, gaskets or pipes, for example.
[7] It was there in 1954, when the first unclassified technical report on the preparation of Fluorine containing compounds was written for the Office of Naval Research.