Isidor Fankuchen (July 19, 1905 – June 28, 1964) was an American pioneer of

crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The wo ...

. Known to his friends as "Fan" he was from a Jewish family of Dutch origin and trained in Cornell and under W.L. Bragg and

J.D. Bernal John Desmond Bernal (; 10 May 1901 – 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. He published extensively on the history of science. In addition, Bernal wrote popular book ...

. He was one of the founders of the

International Union of Crystallography The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) is an organisation devoted to the international promotion and coordination of the science of crystallography. The IUCr is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Objectives T ...

(1945). His name has mistakenly been recorded also as Isadore van Kueken. Fankuchen was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

in a family of modest means and went to

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

where he received a BS in 1926. He then studied at

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

with a Hecksher fellowship and received a PhD in 1933 after working under C.C. Murdock. He then went to Manchester University on a post-doctoral fellowship from the Schweinburg Foundation and worked with Sir Lawrence Bragg (1933–34) followed by two years at

Birkbeck College , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £109 ...

with J.D. Bernal during which time they examined the structure of chymotrypsin and haemoglobin. He also collaborated with Bernal's student

Dorothy Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential ...

(then Dorothy Crowfoot) in studying steroids. He then returned to the United States and worked on protein chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then joined the Anderson Institute for Biological Research, Red Wing, Minnesota serving as an assistant director (1941–42). In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. From 1942 until his death in 1964 he was a faculty member at the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. He was influential in training a generation of crystallographers and organized a monthly seminar group called the "Point Group". His courses produced so-called "Fan's two-week wonders" who learned crystallography and knew what could be done with it. Fankuchen studied the structure of the

tobacco mosaic virus ''Tobacco mosaic virus'' (TMV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus species in the genus '' Tobamovirus'' that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. The infection causes charact ...

(along with F. C. Bawden), the

tomato bushy stunt virus Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) is a virus of the tombusvirus family. It was first reported in tomatoes in 1935 and primarily affects vegetable crops, though it is not generally considered an economically significant plant pathogen. Depending ...

, and fibres. His greatest influence was as a teacher. He edited the journal ''

Acta Crystallographica ''Acta Crystallographica'' is a series of peer-reviewed scientific journals, with articles centred on crystallography, published by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). Originally established in 1948 as a single journal called ''Act ...

'' from 1948. He died of cancer in Brooklyn.

References

External links

Archival collections

Isidor Fankuchen papers, 1933-1964, Niels Bohr Library & Archives

Isidor Fankuchen papers, New York University Libraries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fankuchen, Isador American crystallographers Scientists from Brooklyn 1905 births 1964 deaths Cooper Union alumni Cornell University alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Presidents of the American Crystallographic Association