Past NAS President Frederick Seitz Dies at 96
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March 7 -- Frederick Seitz, president emeritus of the National Academy of Sciences and Rockefeller University, died earlier this week at the age of 96. A pioneer in the field of solid-state physics, Seitz was elected to the NAS in 1951 and served as president from 1962-1969. He was the first NAS president to serve in a full-time capacity, beginning in 1965, and during his presidency, he oversaw the academy's centennial celebration in 1963 and the expansion of its historic headquarters on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. [more]
The National Academy of Engineering and Board on Medicine (which later became the Institute of Medicine) were established during his tenure as well. Seitz, who received an A.B in mathematics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University, worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1973. "Fred Seitz was very interested in the history of science and scientists," noted current NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. "Working with materials from our archives, he wrote a brief history of the NAS that was published last year. He was very engaged in that project and talked with me about it several times up until he finished it at the end of 2006."
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