Edward Alan Knapp (March 7, 1932 – August 17, 2009) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and was director of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

from 1982 to 1984. Knapp graduated with BA from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

in 1954, and with a PhD in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

in 1958. He then moved to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he became division leader of the accelerator technology division. In 1978, he was a guest scientist in the USA–USSR Exchange Program in Fundamental Properties of Matter. He also was a guest scientist in the US–Japanese Cooperative Cancer Research Program (NCI) in 1979. On July 12, 1982, he was nominated by

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

to succeed

William Klemperer William A. Klemperer (October 6, 1927 – November 5, 2017) was an American chemist who was one of the most influential chemical physicists and molecular spectroscopists in the second half of the 20th century. Klemperer is most widely known fo ...

as assistant director for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation. In November 1982, he became director of the NSF, succeeding John Brooks Slaughter. In August 1984, he gave up the position to

Erich Bloch Erich Bloch (January 9, 1925 – November 25, 2016) was a German-born American electrical engineer and administrator. He was involved with developing IBM's first transistorized supercomputer, 7030 Stretch, and mainframe computer, System/360. ...

and returned to scientific research. Knapp died at his home in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

, on August 17, 2009, after battling pancreatic cancer.

References

1932 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American physicists Pomona College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Accelerator physicists Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel Santa Fe Institute people Fellows of the American Physical Society Reagan administration personnel {{US-physicist-stub