Donald Frederick Hornig (March 17, 1920 – January 21, 2013) was an American chemist, explosives expert, teacher and presidential science advisor. He served as president of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

from 1970 to 1976.

Life and career

Hornig was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Chester Arthur Hornig and Emma Knuth. He attended

Milwaukee Country Day School Milwaukee Country Day School (MCD) was a country day school in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, United States. It operated under the headmastership of A. Gledden Santer. The school was begun in 1917, "incorporated by leading citizens.". According to alumn ...

, then earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Harvard University. He was awarded his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1943, at the age of 23, with a dissertation on ''An Investigation of the Shock Wave Produced by an Explosion in Air''. On July 17, 1943 he was married to scientist

Lilli Hornig , birth_date = , birth_place = Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia , death_date = , death_place = Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. , education = Bryn Mawr College ( BA)Harvard University ( MA, PhD) , workp ...

. The couple had four children together: three girls, Joanna, Ellen, and Leslie, and one boy, Christopher. After graduating, he started work at the Underwater Explosives Laboratory of the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

. While there, according to one obituary, he received an invitation to begin a new job, but he was not told what his duties would be, nor, initially, to where he would relocate. At first he refused, but Harvard University President James B. Conant helped persuade him to reconsider. Thus, he joined the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he was a group leader in the Manhattan Project. He worked on the firing unit that was used for the implosion of the plutonium device. He helped prepare the first atomic bomb, Trinity, and witnessed its explosion, the first detonation of a nuclear device. He was sent up to the top of the tower twice the previous day to reassure a nervous Robert Oppenheimer that all was well.Donald Hornig, Last to See First A-Bomb, Dies at 92
The New York Times, January 26, 2013 In 1946 he joined the staff of

as an assistant professor, and became a full professor in 1951. From 1951 to 1952 he was Associate Dean of the Graduate School, then acting dean the following year. In 1957 he became a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

and the same year he moved to Princeton University in 1957. Later became chairman of the Princeton chemistry department. Shortly before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, he announced Hornig as the presidential science advisor. Hornig assumed office on January 24, 1964, but did not enjoy good relations with the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who enjoyed a poor relationship with many scientists. He left office at the end of the president's term in 1969, and accepted an executive position with

Eastman Kodak Company The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. In 1970 he became president of

, and he remained in office until he resigned in 1976. The end of his term was noted for financial cutbacks at the university, which was met by student protests. Thereafter he became Professor of Chemistry in Public Health at Harvard University. From 1987 to 1990 he served the Harvard University School of Public Health as chairman of the Department of Environmental Health. He retired in 1990. Since 2013, Hornig has been listed on the Advisory Council of the

National Center for Science Education The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of controversies surrounding t ...

. Hornig died from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

in Providence, Rhode Island on January 21, 2013.

Awards and honors

* Winner of the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award of the American Chemical Society, 1967. * Honorary LL.D from Boston College, November 12, 1966. * Honorary D.Sc. from the University of Maryland, 1965. * Honorary D.Sc. from Syracuse University, 1968. * Member of the

. * Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. * Member of the American Philosophical Society. * Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. * Recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship.

References

External links

Oral History Interview with Donald Hornig, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Episode of The Memory Palace podcast about Horning's peculiar role during the first A-Bomb test
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hornig, Donald 1920 births 2013 deaths American chemists American educational theorists Fellows of the American Physical Society Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Manhattan Project people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Office of Science and Technology Policy officials Presidents of Brown University