Blout, E. R. (Elkan Rogers)

Dates

• Existence: 1919 - 2006

Biography

Elkan R. Blout was a biochemist, professor and administrator at Harvard Medical School. Blout was born in New York, New York in 1919. He received his BA from Princeton University in 1939 and a PhD from Columbia in 1942. He briefly worked as a research fellow in chemistry at Harvard University for a year before joining Polaroid as a chemist in the research and development division. Blout, along with fellow chemist Cutler West, were charged with synthesizing quinine crystals used in the polarizers. Polarizers were manufactured to reduce headlight glare from automobiles and in goggles and vectographs. After World War II ended, demand for goggles and vectographs diminished, Blout and colleagues focused on optical plastics manufactured from light transmitting polymers and infrared spectroscopy.

From 1948 to 1958, he served as Associate Director of Research and from 1958 to 1962 he was Vice President and General Manager of Research. During the late 1940s and 1950s, Blout and his research team were instrumental in the development of instant black and white photography and later color photography. While working at Polaroid during the 1950s, Blout established a spectroscopy laboratory at Children's Hospital, funded by an US Army grant, where he focused on synthetic polypeptides and proteins. He left Polaroid to teach at Harvard Medical School in the biological chemistry department. He was named the Edward S. Harkness Professor of Biological Chemistry, a position he held from 1964 to 1990 until he became Professor Emeritus. Blout also served as Senior Adviser to the Food and Drug Administration and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Harvard School for Public Health. Blout died in 2006.

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