Arthur M. Poskanzer (28 June 1931 in New York City – 30 June 2021 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

Obituary - Art Poskanzer, LBNL Nuclear Science Division
/ref>) was an experimental physicist, known for his pioneering work on relativistic nuclear collisions.Arthur M. Poskanzer, 2008 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physicis Recipient, aps.org
/ref> Poskanzer received in 1953 his bachelor's degree in physics and chemistry from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and in 1954 his master's degree in chemistry from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. In 1957 he received his Ph.D. from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in physical chemistry. At Harvard his undergraduate advisor was

George Kistiakowsky George Bogdanovich Kistiakowsky (, ; – December 7, 1982) was a Ukrainian-American physical chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Science Advisor. B ...

, and at MIT his doctoral advisor was Charles Coryell. From 1957 to 1966 Poskanzer was a chemist at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

. From 1966 he worked as a scientist at

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

(LBL) and remained on the staff there until 2001, when he retired with emeritus status. From 1978 to 1979 he was the scientific director of

Bevalac The Bevatron was a particle accelerator — specifically, a weak-focusing proton synchrotron — located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S., which began operations in 1954. The antiproton was discovered there in 1955, resulti ...

. From 1980 to 1990 he was the leader of the Plastic Ball Experimental Group, which was part of a collaboration between LBL and

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research () is a federally and state co-funded heavy ion () research center in Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1969 as the Society for Heavy Ion Research (), abbreviated GSI, to conduct research on a ...

(GSI). From 1990 to 1995 he was the head of the Relativistic Collisions Program at LBL. He is famous as one of the co-discoverers of what nuclear physicists call collective flow; this phenomenon consists of fluidic motion exhibited by nuclear matter, such as quarks and gluons, when compressed to a physical state of high temperature and high energy-density. This discovery was made during the collaboration between LBL and GSI. For the academic year 1970/71 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

. He was several times a visiting scientist at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

(in 1979/80, in 1986/87 and in 1995/96, with the latter two visiting years each supported by Alexander von Humboldt Senior US Scientist Awards). He married in 1954 and upon his death in 2021 was survived by his widow, their three children, and four grandchildren.

Honors and awards

*1976 — elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society *1979 — American Chemical Society Award in Nuclear Chemistry *1992 — elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science *2008 — Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics

References

External links

Berkeley Lab Photo Archive : XBD9810-02631.TIF
(Plastic Ball Experimental Group) {{DEFAULTSORT:Poskanzer, Arthur W. 1931 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American chemists 21st-century American physicists American nuclear physicists Harvard College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Scientists from New York City Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory people People associated with CERN