34 Facts About Frederick Seitz

Frederick Seitz was an American physicist and a pioneer of solid state physics and lobbyist.

Frederick Seitz was the recipient of the National Medal of Science, NASA's Distinguished Public Service Award, and other honors.

Frederick Seitz married Elizabeth K Marshall on May 18,1935.

Frederick Seitz was survived by a son, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Frederick Seitz moved to Princeton University to study metals under Eugene Wigner, gaining his PhD in 1934.

Frederick Seitz was a consultant on many World War II-related projects in metallurgy, radiation damage to solids and electronics amongst others.

Early in his academic career, Frederick Seitz served on the faculty of the University of Rochester and after an interlude as a research physicist at General Electric Laboratories he was at the University of Pennsylvania and then the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

From 1946 to 1947, Frederick Seitz was director of the training program in atomic energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Frederick Seitz was appointed Professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1949, becoming chairman of the department in 1957 and dean and vice-president for research in 1964.

From 1962 to 1969 Frederick Seitz served as president of the United States National Academy of Sciences, in a full-time capacity from 1965.

Frederick Seitz was the president of Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1978 during which he helped to launch new research programs in molecular biology, cell biology, and neuroscience as well as creating a joint MD-PhD program with Cornell University.

Frederick Seitz retired from Rockefeller University in 1979, when he was made President Emeritus.

Frederick Seitz was a director of Texas Instruments and of Akzona Corporation.

Frederick Seitz later wrote that "The money was all spent on basic science, medical science," and pointed to Reynolds-funded research on mad cow disease and tuberculosis.

In 1984 Seitz was the founding chairman of the George C Marshall Institute, and was its chairman until 2001.

In 1994, the Institute published a paper by Frederick Seitz titled Global warming and ozone hole controversies: A challenge to scientific judgment.

Frederick Seitz questioned the view that CFCs "are the greatest threat to the ozone layer".

Frederick Seitz was the highest-ranking scientist among a band of doubters who, beginning in the early 1990s, resolutely disputed suggestions that global warming was serious threat.

Frederick Seitz argued that the science behind global warming was inconclusive and "certainly didn't warrant imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions".

Frederick Seitz signed the 1995 Leipzig Declaration and, in an open letter inviting scientists to sign the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine's global warming petition, called for the United States to reject the Kyoto Protocol.

Frederick Seitz worked extensively with Fred Singer during his consultancy career for tobacco and oil corporations in matters of health and climate change, respectively.

Frederick Seitz wrote a range of scientific books in his field, including The Modern Theory of Solids and The Physics of Metals.

The latter, begun in 1955, with David Turnbull, reached 60 volumes by 2008, with Frederick Seitz remaining an active editor until volume 38 in 1984.

Frederick Seitz was committed to "a muscular military strengthened by the most technologically advanced weaponry", while the scientific community generally supported arms limitations talks and treaties.

Frederick Seitz was ardently anti-communist and his support for aggressive weapons programs was a reflection of this.

Frederick Seitz said that American science had become "rigid", and his colleagues had become closed-minded and dogmatic.

Frederick Seitz was a principal organizer of the infamous Oregon Petition, where numerous signatories claimed that there was no evidence that greenhouse gases were responsible for global warming.

Frederick Seitz was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1946.

Frederick Seitz was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1952, serving as its President from 1962 to 1969.

Frederick Seitz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962.

Frederick Seitz was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Frederick Seitz served on a range of boards of charitable institutions, including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and American Museum of Natural History and Institute of International Education.

Frederick Seitz was a board member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In 1981, Frederick Seitz became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.