Andrew Sessler facts for kids

Andrew Sessler in 2014 with his Enrico Fermi Award

Andrew Marienhoff Sessler (born December 11, 1928 – died April 17, 2014) was an important American scientist. He was a physicist, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and even led a big science lab called the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1973 to 1980. He was also a kind person who worked for peace and was once the president of the American Physical Society, a group for physicists.

Biography

Andrew Sessler was born in New York City in 1928. He went to Harvard University to study math and then to Columbia University where he earned his Ph.D. in physics. His special research there was about the tiny parts of a type of helium.

From 1954 to 1959, he taught at Ohio State University. After that, he moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He became the director of this famous lab from 1973 to 1980.

Andrew Sessler was an expert in the physics of particle accelerators. These are machines that speed up tiny particles to study them. He also knew a lot about particle physics (the study of very small particles) and plasma physics (the study of superheated gas). Besides accelerators, he also wrote about how tiny particles behave using quantum theory, and about atoms and special types of fluids.

Sessler also cared deeply about people. He was part of a group that studied the long-term effects of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also worked with the American Physical Society to help remove landmines around the world. He was a member of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya.

Because of his important work, he received several awards. In 1970, he won the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. Then, on January 13, 2014, Andrew Sessler and another scientist, Allen J. Bard, were given the Enrico Fermi Award. This is one of the highest honors a scientist can receive from the U.S. government.

Andrew Sessler lived in Oakland, California. He passed away in 2014 after being sick for a long time.

See also

• List of members of the National Academy of Sciences (Physics)