After serving in the Specialized Training Reserve Program during WWII, John Caplan completed his BS at OSU and joined the General Motors Research Labs in 1949. He served as Executive Director from 1969 until retiring in 1987. In his early years at GM he completed an MSME at Wayne State University and later, an Advanced Management Program at Harvard. Mr. Caplan was a leader in early investigations of automotive air pollution and served as an industry spokesman on matters related to air pollution. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
He was also a member of the board of Directors for the Coordinating Research Council, and of the Industrial Research Institute. He was the winner of the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers Crompton-Lanchester Medal in 1964. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1973 for outstanding contributions to understanding of fuels, power plants and their relationship to the environment. In retirement, he continued to evaluate research proposals for the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Commerce. Mr. Caplan passed away in 1998.
Degrees
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1949