Walter Lincoln Hawkins (March 21, 1911 – August 20, 1992) was an American chemist and engineer widely regarded as a pioneer of polymer chemistry.
W. Lincoln Hawkins was born on March 21, 1911, in Washington, D.C. His father was a lawyer for the U.S. Census Bureau and his mother was a science teacher in the District of Columbia school system.
Unable to find a job during the Great Depression, he enrolled in graduate school at Howard University where, in 1934, he earned a master's degree in chemistry.
[2] His earliest projects at Bell Labs were focused on producing cheap alternatives to rubber that could be made domestically during World War II.
By controlling much of the Pacific theater in World War II, the Japanese had cut off much of America's rubber supply from Southeast Asia.
Prior to this work, underground and underwater cables, which were laid over incredibly long distances, were covered with fiber wrapped in heavy, expensive lead sheathing.
In 1956, Hawkins, in collaboration with Vincent Lanza, invented a plastic coating that could withstand extreme fluctuations in temperature, last up to seventy years, and was less expensive than lead.
Upon validation of this technology, telephone lines were installed in rural areas, bringing affordable phone service to thousands of people and reducing the use of lead.
In addition to his technical efforts developing the new polymer-based cable sheath, Hawkins gave considerable effort to developing appropriate testing methods to prove the materials would have long lifetimes and minimal plastic waste, and towards communicating the underlying chemistry to non-technical audiences interested in the expansion of telecommunications technology.
[1][3] Hawkins retired from Bell labs in 1976 after 34 years of contributions, and transitioned to working as the director of research of the Plastics Institute of America from 1976 to 1983.
In 1981, he became the first chairman of Project SEED (Support of the Educationally & Economically Disadvantaged), an American Chemical Society program designed to promote science careers for minority students.