Frederik W. H. Zachariasen
The University of Chicago
February 5, 1906 - December 24, 1979
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Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1949)
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Frederik Zachariasen was a physical chemist who used x-rays to study matter in various states—gasses, liquids, and solids, most notably crystals. His research contributed a wealth of information about the structure and composition of complex mineralogical crystals, materials such as glass and superconductors, and heavy metal elements, as well as other types of matter.
In his youth, Zachariasen was fascinated by the crystals that were so common in his native landscape of Norway, and so he began studying them at the mineralogical institute of the University of Oslo, earning his PhD there in 1928. Zachariasen joined the Physics Department at the University of Chicago in 1930 and remained a faculty member until his retirement. He assumed an administrative role as the chairman of the department in the 1940s, making sweeping changes that dramatically improved the program’s national rank.
Zachariasen joined the Manhattan Project in 1943, helping to identify the elements that were generated as they attempted to isolate plutonium from its host material. This work spawned his interest in the transuranic metals—elements that have an atomic number greater than 92—which were a focus of his research in later years.
Zachariasen was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Norwegian Academy of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Executive Committee of the International Union of Crystallography.
