Arthur Lee Loeb (13 July 1923,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

– 19 July 2002,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

) was a Dutch scientist and crystallographer. He arrived to the U.S. during World War II, completed his undergraduate studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

in 1944, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics 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 high ...

in 1949. Loeb taught at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

in the early part of his career. His life's work involved the articulation of a language of spatial patterns, which he refined while working as a research scientist at Kennecott Copper Co. research laboratory in Lexington, MA from 1962 to 1973. He later taught at Harvard, where he was senior lecturer in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department. His language, which he described as "Visual Mathematics" and "Design Science," led to lifelong collaboration with innovators such as

R. Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more ...

and

M.C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made Mathematics and art, mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for ...

. Loeb was a founder and first Vice-President of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry (ISIS-Symmetry). He was later, until 2001, the Chairman of the Advisory Board. Loeb and his wife, Charlotte Aarts Loeb (1921–2006) lived for many years in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, Massachusetts, and maintained a music room where they played Renaissance music, often with period instruments, and practiced Renaissance dance. This reflected Loeb's love for Renaissance music and its intricate patterns of dance. The

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

carries a collection on design science in his name. He is buried at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmi ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his grave contains the inscription "Beloved teacher, scientist & musician."

Selected books

*''Space Structures: Their Harmony and Counterpoint'', Addison-Wesley, 1976,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loeb, Arthur Lee 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Dutch physicists Crystallographers University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Scientists from Amsterdam Dutch emigrants to the United States