Walter J. Kauzmann, the David B. Jones Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Princeton, died Jan. 27, 2009, of pneumonia. He was 92.
Kauzmann graduated from Cornell in 1937 and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton in 1940. In 1946, he joined Princeton’s chemistry department and was the Jones professor from 1963 until he retired in 1983. From 1964 to 1968 he was the department’s chair and also chair of the biological sciences department from 1980 to 1981.
By direct thought and analysis of data, Kauzmann’s insights into how proteins (the main molecular mechanisms in all living systems) crinkle, or fold, enabled him to predict that a significant portion of the string of oily chemicals making up proteins shuns water, which causes proteins to fold into their complex individual shapes. All current work on protein design rests on the concept that this hydrophobic effect is the driving force of protein folding, which when done correctly sustains life.
Kauzmann was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1964. The University of Stockholm awarded him an honorary Ph.D. in 1992.
Elizabeth, his wife of 53 years, predeceased him in 2004. He is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.