Elias Amdur papers

Elias Amdur was born on 2 December 1916 in Frederick, South Dakota. He earned his B.Chem. in 1938, M.S. in 1941 and his Ph.D. in 1944, all awarded by the University of Minnesota. After finishing his undergraduate degree, Dr. Amdur joined the staff of the University of Minnesota department of physiology as a research assistant to artificially radioactive isotopes in biology. He moved to the chemistry department in 1939, still researching radioactive isotopes. Dr. Amdur became a junior chemist in 1941, and in 1942, he began work as a research fellow studying the creation of linen from flax straw. In 1945, Dr. Amdur was promoted to research associate and continued to research flax straw at the University of Minnesota through 1952.

Dr. Amdur's master's and Ph.D. theses involved the drying of biological materials, which led to the development of a new type of drying machine, developed by the Institute of Research and the Department of Horticulture at the University of Minnesota.