Robert Naumann, who retired as Princeton’s only joint professor of chemistry and physics, died Dec. 10, 2014, of Parkinson’s disease. He was 85.

Born in Germany in 1929, Naumann attended schools in the U.S. and Australia before graduating in 1949 from UC, Berkeley. In 1953, Princeton awarded him a Ph.D. in chemistry. Naumann remained at Princeton, teaching chemistry and physics for 39 years to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students.

His interests, especially nuclear chemistry and spectroscopy, yielded countless research articles and the discovery of 21 radioactive isotopes and 12 nuclear isomers. He spent many summers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

During sabbatical leaves, he did research at European universities. At the Technical University in Munich, Naumann was twice an Alexander von Humboldt Senior U.S. Scientist, and in 1988 was a visiting professor. In 1992 he retired to Vermont, across the river from Dartmouth College, where he was an adjunct professor of chemistry, physics, and astronomy.

Naumann is survived by Marina Turkevich Naumann *71 (daughter of the late John Turkevich *34, Princeton professor emeritus of chemistry), whom he married in 1961 in the Princeton University Chapel; two children (including Andrew ’88); and four grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1953