Edward F. Hammel *44

Edward Hammel, who was affiliated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 35 years, died June 8, 2013. He was 95.

He graduated from Dartmouth in 1939 and then came to Princeton to study chemistry. From 1941 to 1944, Hammel was involved in heavy-water production and diffusion-barrier research for early Manhattan Project work contracted to Princeton. In 1944, Princeton awarded him a Ph.D. in chemistry.

That year Hammel went to Los Alamos and began work on remelting, alloying, and casting plutonium. After the war he was the leader of the low-temperature physics and cryoengineering group for 25 years. The group worked to determine plutonium’s physical properties, explored superconductivity, cryoengineering, calorimetry, and high-pressure physics. In 1970, he began working on energy issues, and he became assistant director for energy in 1974. He retired from the lab in 1979.

Among many honors, he received the Samuel C. Collins Award from the Cryogenic Engineering Conference and the W.T. Pentzer Award from the U.S. National Committee for the International Institute of Refrigeration.

He was predeceased by his wife, Caroline Moore. He is survived by three daughters; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

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