Plank, Charles J.

Plank, Charles J.

(1915– ) chemist, inventor; born in Calcutta, India (the son of American missionary parents). Educated at Purdue University, he joined a forerunner of the Mobil Oil Corporation in 1941. With Edward J. Rosinski, he invented the first commercially applicable apparatus for the cracking of hydrocarbons, a necessary process in petroleum production. In 1970 he became senior scientist at Mobil Oil, the company's highest scientific post.