Walter B. Loewenstein

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Walter Bernard Loewenstein (born December 23, 1926 in Gensungen , Hessen , † November 26, 2018 ) was an American physicist who worked in the field of reactor technology .

Live and act

Walter Loewenstein was born as the son of the Jewish wood and grain merchant Louis Loewenstein and his wife Johanna in the then independent community of Gensungen. In 1938 the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Tacoma, Washington . In 1943, the family members received US citizenship. Loewenstein attended college in Puget Sound . In 1945 he was drafted into the US Navy , where he served a year. He then returned to Puget Sound College, graduating in 1949 with a degree in mathematics and physics. After studying for a year at the Graduate School of the University of Washington , he moved to Ohio State University , where he attended courses from Alfred Landé , among other things . In 1954 he received his doctorate with a thesis on chemical physics.

Inspired by the developments in the field of reactor physics that were accelerated after the end of the Second World War , he went to the Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho Falls , where he did research on so-called fast reactors with Robert Avery and David Okrent . From 1958 he devoted himself to the construction of a small breeder reactor , which was named Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II). In the early 1960s he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory in the later discontinued development of nuclear missiles. From 1968 he held a leading position in the EWC II project, in 1972 he became director of this project and in 1973 head of the Applied Physics Division.

In the same year he went to the newly established Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto , California . There he became head of the Safety Technology Department of the Nuclear Power Division, and from 1982 until his retirement he was Deputy Director of the Nuclear Power Division.

Loewenstein worked on various national and international committees. Since the founding of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), he has held various positions in this society. From 1989 to 1990 he was its chairman.

In 1962 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1991 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering .

literature

  • Nancy J. Zacha: Loewenstein: A nuclear veteran looking to the future . In: Nuclear News . tape 32 , no. 9 , 1989, pp. 104-107 .
  • Walter Loewenstein, ANS President 1989-1990 (Biography) . In: American Nuclear Society . ( online [PDF; accessed on August 20, 2017]).
  • WB Loewenstein: The Physics Design of the EBR-II (AEC Research and Development Report) . Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 1961, p. 69 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members Directory: Dr. Walter B. Loewenstein. National Academy of Engineering, accessed August 19, 2017 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Loewenstein, Walter B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loewenstein, Walter Bernard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Gensings
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 2018