Arthur Lee Loeb (13 July 1923,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

– 19 July 2002,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

) was a Dutch scientist and

crystallographer A crystallographer is a type of scientist who practices crystallography, in other words, who studies crystals. Career paths The work of crystallographers spans several academic disciplines, including the life sciences, chemistry, physics, and m ...

Life and career

Loeb arrived to the U.S. during World War II, completed his undergraduate studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1944, and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Chemical physics Chemical physics is a branch of physics that studies chemical processes from a physical point of view. It focuses on understanding the physical properties and behavior of chemical systems, using principles from both physics and chemistry. This ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1949. He taught at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in the early part of his career. His life's work involved the articulation of a language of spatial patterns, which he refined while working as a research scientist at Kennecott Copper Co. research laboratory in Lexington, MA from 1962 to 1973. Loeb later taught at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, where he was senior lecturer in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department. His language, which he described as "Visual Mathematics" and "Design Science," led to lifelong collaboration with innovators such as

R. Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

and

M.C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; ; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were Mathematics and art, inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular int ...

. Loeb was a founder and first Vice-President of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry (ISIS-Symmetry). He was later, until 2001, the Chairman of the Advisory Board. Loeb and his wife, Charlotte Aarts Loeb (1921–2006) lived for many years in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts, and maintained a music room where they played Renaissance music, often with period instruments, and practiced Renaissance dance. This reflected Loeb's love for Renaissance music and its intricate patterns of dance. The

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...

carries a collection on design science in his name. He is buried at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark. Dedicated in ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his grave contains the inscription "Beloved teacher, scientist & musician."

Selected books

* ''Color and Symmetry'', Wiley-Interscience, 1971, * ''Space Structures: Their Harmony and Counterpoint'', Addison-Wesley, 1976, * ''Concepts & Images: Visual Mathematics'', Birkhäuser, 1993,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loeb, Arthur Lee 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Dutch physicists Crystallographers University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Scientists from Amsterdam Dutch emigrants to the United States