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Frederick Seitz (July 4, 1911 – March 2, 2008) was an American physicist and a pioneer of solid state physics. Seitz studied under Eugene Wigner at Princeton University, graduating in 1934. He, along with Wigner, came up with the concept of the Wigner–Seitz unit cell. Seitz was president of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1962–1969. He also founded the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as several other material research laboratories across the United States. After his retirement from academia in 1979, he became a tobacco industry consultant and a prominent skeptic on the issue of global warming.

Background and early career

Born in San Francisco on July 4, 1911, Seitz graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School in the middle of his senior year. He went on to study physics at Stanford University obtaining his bachelor's degree in three years, and then moved to Princeton University to study metals under Eugene Wigner, gaining his PhD in 1943. He and Wigner pioneered one of the first quantum theory of crystals, and developed concepts in solid-state physics such as the Wigner–Seitz unit cell.

The Wigner-Seitz unit cell is a geometrical construction used in the study of crystalline material in solid-state physics. It is specific to crystals because the unique property of a crystal is that its atoms are arranged in a regular 3-dimensional array called a lattice. All the properties attributed to crystalline materials stem from this highly ordered structure. Such a structure exhibits discrete translational symmetry. In order to model and study such a periodic system, one needs a mathematical "handle" to describe the symmetry and hence draw conclusions about the material properties consequent to this symmetry. The Wigner–Seitz cell is a means to achieve this.

Academic career

After graduate studies, Seitz continued to work on solid state physics, publishing The Modern Theory of Solids in 1940, motivated by a desire to "write a cohesive account of the various aspects of solid-state physics in order to give the field the kind of unity it deserved". The Modern Theory of Solids helped unify and understand the relations between the fields of metallurgy, ceramics, and electronics. He was also a consultant on many World War II-related projects in metallurgy, radiation damage to solids and electronics amongst others. He, along with Hillard Huntington, made the first calculation of the energies of formation and migration of vacancies and interstitials in copper, inspiring many works on point defects in metals.

From 1946 to 1947, Seitz was director of the training program in atomic energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was appointed Professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1949, becoming chairman of the department in 1957 and dean and vice-president for research in 1964. Seitz also served as an advisor to NATO. From 1962 to 1969 Seitz served as President of the United States National Academy of Sciences, in a full-time capacity from 1965.

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

Consultancy career

Shortly before his retirement from Rockefeller University, Seitz began working as a permanent consultant for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, advising their research program. In a discussion of the dangers of secondary inhalation of tobacco smoke, he concluded "there is no good scientific evidence that passive inhalation is truly dangerous under normal circumstances."

Seitz was a founder of the George C. Marshall Institute and was chairman of its board. In 1994, the Institute published a paper by Seitz titled Global warming and ozone hole controversies: A challenge to scientific judgment. He questioned the view that CFCs "are the greatest threat to the ozone layer".

According to Merchants of Doubt, Seitz was a central climate change denial figure. Seitz questioned whether global warming is anthropogenic, signing the 1995 Leipzig Declaration and in an open letter inviting scientists to sign the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine's global warming petition calling for the United States to reject the Kyoto Protocol. The letter was accompanied by a 12-page article on climate change. In response the United States National Academy of Sciences took what the New York Times called "the extraordinary step of refuting the position of one its former presidents." This was necessary because the article followed the identical style and format of a contribution to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a scientific journal, even including a date of publication ("October 26") and volume number ("Vol. 13: 149-164 1999"), but was not actually a publication of the National Academy. Raymond Pierrehumbert, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chicago, said that the article was "designed to be deceptive by giving people the impression that the article...is a reprint and has passed peer review." Pierrehumbert also said the article was full of "half-truths". F. Sherwood Rowland, who was at the time foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the Academy received numerous inquiries from researchers who "are wondering if someone is trying to hoodwink them."

Seitz died March 2, 2008 in New York.

Awards and recognition

Seitz was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1952, serving as its President from 1962 to 1969. He received the Franklin Medal (1965). In 1973 he was awarded the National Medal of Science "for his contributions to the modern quantum theory of the solid state of matter." He also received the United States Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Distinguished Public Service Award; and the Compton Award, the highest honor of the American Institute of Physics.

Positions held

• Carnegie Tech, Head of the physics department (1946–?)
• University of Illinois, Professor of physics (1949–1968)
• American Institute of Physics, Chairman (1954–1959)
• Academic Press, Editor (1955–1984)
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization, (1959–1960)
• American Physics Society, Chairman (1961)
• United States National Academy of Sciences, Chairman (1962–1964)
• United States National Academy of Sciences, Chairman (1964–1969)
• Rockefeller University, President Emeritus (1968–1978)
• Richard Lounsbery Foundation, President (?–?)
• Science and Environmental Policy Project, Chair (?–?)
• George C. Marshall Institute, Founder, Chairman
• Physica Status Solidi B, Editorial Board Member

Books

• Frederick Seitz On the Frontier, My Life in Science (American Institute of Physics, 1994)
• Nikolaus Riehl and Frederick Seitz Stalin’s Captive: Nikolaus Riehl and the Soviet Race for the Bomb (American Chemical Society and the Chemical Heritage Foundations, 1996) ISBN 0-8412-3310-1.

This book is a translation of Nikolaus Riehl’s book Zehn Jahre im goldenen Käfig (Ten Years in a Golden Cage) (Riederer-Verlag, 1988); but Seitz wrote a lengthy introduction. It contains 58 photographs.

See also

• Wigner–Seitz radius
• Wigner–Seitz cell
• Merchants of Doubt

References

1. 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.
2. ^ E. Goldwasser, A.V. Granato, R.O. Simmons (2008). "Frederick Seitz". Physics Today. 61 (7): 66–67. doi:10.1063/1.2963019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. "The 1950s in the Departement of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign".
4. ^ D. Hevesi (2008-03-06). "Frederick Seitz, 96, Dies; Physicist Who Led Skeptics of Global Warming". The New York Times. p. C12.
5. ^ United States National Academy of Sciences, 7 March 2008, Past NAS President Frederick Seitz Dies at 96
6. "Tobacco Documents".
7. "Tobacco Control - Sign In Page".
8. "A Conversation with Dr. Frederick Seitz".
9. "Do people cause global warming?". 1 December 2001. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
10. After the petition appeared, the National Academy of Sciences said in a 1998 news release that "The NAS Council would like to make it clear that this petition has nothing to do with the National Academy of Sciences and that the manuscript was not published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or in any other peer-reviewed journal." It also said "The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy." - NAS 20 April 1998.
11. "Statement by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences regarding Global Change Petition" (Press release). National Academy of Sciences. April 20, 1998. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
12. Arthur B. Robinson (1998). "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide". OISM and the George C. Marshall Institute. Retrieved 2008-07-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
13. ^ David Malakoff (10 April 1998). "CLIMATE CHANGE: Advocacy Mailing Draws Fire". Science. 195 (5361): 195. doi:10.1126/science.280.5361.195a.
14. J.L. Bast. "Report #2 from the Global Warming Conference in New York City".
15. "Saxonburg Cyclotron 50th Reunion".
16. "Richard Lounsbery Foundation".
17. "physica status solidi: Meet the Board Members".

External links

• Obituary in The Times, 11 March 2008
• President Emeritus Frederick Seitz dies at 96 (Rockefeller University Newswire)
• Official Rockefeller University scientific biography (1985)
• The George C. Marshall Institute: A Conversation with Dr. Frederick Seitz - September 3, 1997
• Another biography from PBS
• SourceWatch article
• Do people cause global warming?
• Vanity Fair article discussing Seitz's advocacy for tobacco and oil industries
• Vanity Scare (TCS Daily, April 14, 2006): rebuttal to Seitz article in Vanity Fair
• Oral history interview transcript with Frederick Seitz 26 January 1981, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
• Notes on Seitz's work on health studies funded by the tobacco industry and on global warming for Exxon Mobil front organizations

• 1911 births
• 2008 deaths
• American physicists
• National Medal of Science laureates
• Vannevar Bush Award recipients
• American university and college presidents
• Environmental skepticism