Andrew Marienhoff Sessler (December 11, 1928 – April 17, 2014) was an American physicist, academic (

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

), former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1973–1980), humanitarian and former president (1998) of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

Biography

Sessler was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1928. He was educated at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

(B.A. in mathematics) and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(Ph.D. in physics) with dissertation ''Hyperfine structure of ³He''. From 1954 to 1959, he was a member of the faculty at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

before moving to the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...

where he served as Lab Director in 1973-80. His areas of expertise were the physics of particle accelerators, particle physics and plasma physics. In addition to accelerator physics, he also published theoretical work on quantum-theoretical statistical mechanics, atomic physics and superfluidity. Sessler was also active in the study group of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

of the long-term effects of the atomic bombing of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

, and in an initiative group of APS against landmines. Sessler was a member of the

American Committee for Peace in Chechnya American Committee for Peace in Chechnya is a private, non-governmental organization (NGO) in North America. It was founded in 1999 who exclusive stated aim was to promote a peaceful resolution to the separatist insurgency in Chechnya (Second Chec ...

. In 1970, he became an

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic part ...

laureate. On January 13, 2014, Sessler and

Allen J. Bard Allen Joseph Bard (born December 18, 1933) is an American chemist. He is the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair Professor and director of the Center for Electrochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Bard is considered a "father of modern el ...

were awarded the Enrico Fermi Award. Sessler lived in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. He died in 2014 after a long illness.

Books

* . * *

References

External links

Official website

E. J. N. Wilson, "Andrew M. Sessler", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sessler, Andrew American humanitarians 1928 births 2014 deaths Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from California Scientists from New York City Columbia University alumni Harvard University alumni Ohio State University faculty 21st-century American physicists 20th-century American physicists Activists from California Presidents of the American Physical Society

Biography

Books

See also

References

External links