This collection contains correspondence, reports, committee materials, speeches, lectures, presentation notes, manuscript materials, research files, and grant files belonging to David E. Yount, primarily during his tenure at the University of Hawaii. Many papers, speeches, and lectures are located in folders related to conferences, annual meetings, and workshops that Yount attended. Major subjects include diving, acoustics, decompression, decompression sickness, high-energy physics, and diving physiology. Materials range in date from 1862 to 2000, the majority of the papers are from the years 1975 to 2000.
David Eugene Yount was born in Prescott, Arizona on June 5 1935, the oldest of four children. He was valedictorian at Scottsdale High School (1953) and received a full scholarship to college. He earned his bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology (1957) where he graduated with honors. He received his master's (1959) and doctor's degrees (1963) from Stanford University, where he was honored with a membership into Sigma Xi and received a Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Postdoctoral Fellowship in Orsay, France (1964-1965).
Yount began his educational career as an instructor and assistant professor at Princeton University (1962 until 1964). Following this position, Yount worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (1965-1969). Returning to the classroom, he became an associate professor of physics at the University of Hawaii (1969) and was promoted to full professor in 1972. He served as chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy (1979-1984) and was acting assistant vice president for academic affairs (1985). From 1986 to 1995, Yount was the vice president for research and graduate education.
In 1974, he began a series of experimental and theoretical investigations on decompression sickness (commonly referred to as "the bends"). In the course of this work, Yount developed a theoretical model describing the nuclei that initiate bubble formation in watery substances, including blood and tissue. He then used this model to predict the onset of decompression sickness in salmon, rats, and humans, and to calculate a new set of diving tables. He received the Stover-Link Award of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society in 1987 for this work.
Yount authored and co-authored more than 150 research papers on high-energy physics, diving medicine, acoustics, and surface chemistry. He belonged to numerous professional organizations, including the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, the American Association of University Professors, and Sigma Xi.
Dr. Yount died in 2000. He was survived by his wife, Christel, and four children.
