| 1 | Name: | Dr. Hans Frauenfelder | |
| Institution: | University of Illinois & Los Alamos National Laboratory | ||
| Year Elected: | 1981 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 106. Physics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1922 | ||
| Death Date: | July 10, 2022 | ||
Hans Frauenfelder was one of the most important people in realizing biomolecules are dynamic entities and that their motions can be characterized in detail by physical experiments. Frauenfelder made revolutionary contributions in several fields of physics. He started by studying nuclear energy levels, explored the surface effects with radioactivity, discovered perturbed angular correlation, helped elucidate parity violation in the weak interactions, used the Mössbauer effect, and became one of the pioneers of biological physics by creating the field of physics of proteins. In all of these areas, Frauenfelder was able to successfully foster interactions between theory and experiment. Frauenfelder repeatedly crossed disciplinary lines, made significant contributions to biochemistry and biological physics, and demonstrated how developments in one scientific field can transform the development of another. A professor of physics at the University of Illinois for forty years (1952-92), Frauenfelder also served as director of the Center of Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 1992 he received the Biological Physics Prize of the American Physical Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Academy Leopoldina, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Science. He died on July 10, 2022 at the age of 99 in Tusuque, New Mexico. | |||