Charles Sumner Slichter (April 16, 1864 – October 4, 1946) was an applied mathematician and dean of the graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most notable scholarly contribution focused on hydrogeology, where he developed a method of quantifying the velocity of ground-water underflow in river valleys. This method employed ammonium chloride that would be placed in an upstream, i.e., the upgradient, well and detected in three observation wells a short distance away, i.e., the downgradient.

Family

Slichter was the husband of Mary Byrne Slichter and was the father of economist Sumner Slichter, geophysicist Louis B. Slichter, industrialist Allen Slichter, and businessman Donald Slichter, the grandfather of physicist Charles Pence Slichter, and the great-grandfather of musician Jacob Slichter.

Books