Martin Victor Sussman Papers

M.V. Sussman (1926-2005) was a professor in the Chemical Engineering Department for 37 years and a Professor Emeritus following his retirement. He was chairman of the Tufts Chemical Engineering Department for ten years, during which programs leading to the MS and PhD degree were introduced and the faculty size doubled.

Martin Victor Sussman was grew up in New York City, and at the age of 19, he received an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the City College of New York. He earned the doctorate in chemical engineering from Columbia University. He was a fellow of both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and American Institute of Chemists, and was a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Massachusetts.

Sussman was the author of two books on thermodynamics, an American Chemical Society Audio Course on "Availability Analysis," and numerous technical articles. His research interests focused on fiber technology, biotechnology and separation processes. Sussman held more than 20 patents that cover, among other inventions, the "Incremental Draw Process"™ that has been used to manufacture millions of pounds of synthetic fibers, and the "Fibra-Cel"™ tissue culture matrix used in the production of interferon and interleukin.

Sussman held visiting appointments at the Weitzman Institute (Israel); MIT; Exeter, Canterbury, and Cambridge Universities (England); the University of Capetown (South Africa); and ITT-Kanpur and the Birla Institute of Technology (India). Between 1958 and 1961, Martin and a Turkish colleague established the first modern chemical engineering department in Turkey, at Robert College (now Bogazici University) in Istanbul.

Sussman was a veteran of World War II, and he was a Licensed Marine Engineer with the US Maritime Service-Coast Guard.

He was married to Jeanne (Fowler) Sussman with whom he had three children: Ann, Eve, and David,