Physicist Erwin M. Friedlander, an expert in high energy nuclear
physics
and statistics and a longtime member of Berkeley Lab’s
Nuclear Sciences
Division, died on Jan. 22 at Summit Hospital in Oakland, two
weeks after
suffering a heart attack. He was 78.
Born in Romania, he came to the United States in 1975. He
taught at the
University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University before joining
Berkeley Lab as a senior scientist in 1977. He retired 1991,
but
continued his research for the rest of his life. He was a
member of the
Romanian Academy of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences,
and a
recipient of Germany’s prestigious Humboldt Fellowship
(1985).
Friedlander was involved in international collaborations
throughout his
career, most notably with physicists at the Universities of
Frankfurt
and Marburg in Germany, where he also taught for many years.
In Romania
he founded and headed the cosmic rays division of the country’s
Atomic
Physics Laboratory. He authored more than 250 journal articles.
In 1978 Friedlander was active in a worldwide movement started
at
Berkeley Lab on behalf of scientists imprisoned in the former
Soviet
Union (Scientists for Sakharov, Orlov and Sharansky, or SOS.)
Prior to
his death he finished writing a book about science under communism.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Jo Friedlander,
and daughter
Monica Friedlander. Memorial donations in his name may be
made to the
American Heart Association. The funeral will be held on Monday
at 1 p.m.
at Oakmont Cemetery in Lafayette.
CALENDAR
