{{Short description|German crystallographer}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Fritz Laves |image = FritzLaves.jpg |image_size = |caption = |birth_date = {{birth date|1906|2|27|df=y}} |birth_place = Hanover, Germany |death_date = {{death date and age|1978|8|12|1906|2|27|df=y}} |death_place = Laigueglia, Italy |residence = |field = Crystallography |work_institution = University of Göttingen<br>University of Halle<br>University of Marburg<br>ETH Zurich |education = University of Innsbruck<br>University of Göttingen<br>ETH Zurich |doctoral_advisor = Paul Niggli |doctoral_students = |notable_students = Heinz Jagodzinski |known_for = Laves phase<br>Laves tilings<br>Laves graph<br>Coordination sequence |prizes = Roebling Medal <small>(1969)</small> |religion = |footnotes = }}
'''Fritz Henning Emil Paul Berndt Laves'''<ref name="roebling" /> (27 February 1906 – 12 August 1978) was a German crystallographer who served as the president of the German Mineralogical Society from 1956 to 1958.<ref name="ac" /><ref>{{cite book | first= Heinz |last=Jagodzinski | chapter = Laves, Fritz | title = Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) | volume = 14 | publisher = Duncker & Humblot | place = Berlin | year = 1985 | page= 3| url = http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00016332/image_17 | language = German}}</ref><ref name="hellner" /> He is the namesake of Laves phases and the Laves tilings; the Laves graph, a highly-symmetrical three-dimensional crystal structure that he studied, was named after him by H. S. M. Coxeter.<ref>{{citation|last1=Heesch|first1=H.|author1-link=Heinrich Heesch|last2=Laves|first2=F.|title=Über dünne kugelpackungen|journal=Zeitschrift für Kristallographie|volume=85|year=1933|issue=1–6 |pages=443–453|doi=10.1524/zkri.1933.85.1.443|s2cid=101998023 }}.</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Coxeter | first = H. S. M. | authorlink = Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter | doi = 10.4153/CJM-1955-003-7 | journal = Canadian Journal of Mathematics | mr = 0067508 | pages = 18–23 | title = On Laves' graph of girth ten | volume = 7 | year = 1955| s2cid = 124804911 | doi-access = free }}.</ref>
== Education and career == Laves was born in Hanover, the son of a judge and the great-grandson of architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="hellner">{{citation|title=Fritz Laves 27 February 1906 – 12.8.1978|first=E.|last=Hellner|journal=Zeitschrift für Kristallographie|volume=151|issue=1–4|pages=1–20|year=1980|doi=10.1524/zkri.1980.151.14.1|s2cid=98737356 |url=http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~fischerw/Laves.htm|access-date=1 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915010219/http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~fischerw/Laves.htm|archive-date=15 September 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=genea></ref> He grew up in Göttingen, where his interests included piano music as well as collecting rocks and minerals.<ref name="hellner" /> He began his university studies in geology in 1924 at the University of Innsbruck, and continued at the University of Göttingen before moving to ETH Zurich for doctoral studies under Paul Niggli.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="ac" /><ref name="hellner" />
In 1929 he took a faculty position under Victor Goldschmidt at Göttingen.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="ac" /> He tried unsuccessfully to prevent Goldschmidt from being dismissed in 1933,<ref name="hellner" /> and later had difficulty advancing through the German academic system under the Nazis because he was known as a protector of the Jews.<ref name="roebling" /> His research at this time largely concerned metals and intermetallic materials.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="hellner" /> He was drafted into the German army in 1939, but returned to academia after the intervention of Paul Rosbaud, and instead worked on metallurgy for Hermann Göring during the war.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="hellner" /> On that position
<blockquote>an alchemist was assigned to look over his shoulder, and contributed to the success of his experiments by oscillating a small crystal sphere on a chain over the crucible. He also insisted on adding powdered crocodile bones to the batch, but because of Rommel's difficulties in the land of the Nile, settled for the tail-bones of a lesser lizard.<ref name="roebling" /></blockquote>
In 1944 he moved to the University of Halle as director of the Mineralogical Department, and then after World War II he became an ordinary professor at the University of Marburg, where he worked on disordered materials and two-dimensional structures.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="ac" /><ref name="hellner" />
By 1948 he had agreed to be taken to America by the U. S. Navy during Operation Paperclip, and began working with Julian Goldsmith at the University of Chicago.<ref name="roebling" /> At this time, his interests shifted again, to the study of feldspar, one of the minerals he had collected in his youth.<ref name="roebling" /><ref name="hellner" /> Despite having become highly Americanized, he found himself unable to resist an offer to return to ETH Zurich, in 1954, to fill the chair that had been left vacant by the death of his advisor Paul Niggli.<ref name="roebling" /> He remained in Zurich until his retirement in 1976.<ref name="ac">{{citation|title=Fritz H. Laves, 1906–1978 |journal=Acta Crystallogr. A|year=1979|volume=35|page=343|doi=10.1107/S0567739479000747|first=H.|last=Jagodzinski|issue=2 |bibcode=1979AcCrA..35..343J|doi-access=}}</ref>
Laves was the editor of the journal ''Zeitschrift für Kristallographie'' between 1955 and 1978, which honoured him with a special issue in May 2006 commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his birth.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Editorial: Crystal Chemistry of Intermetallic Compounds|first = Yuri|last = Grin|journal = Z. Kristallogr.|volume = 221|issue = 5–7|pages = VI–VII|doi = 10.1524/zkri.2006.221.5-7.VI|year = 2006|bibcode = 2006ZK....221D...6G|doi-access = free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title = Zeitschrift für Kristallographie – Crystalline Materials: Volume 221, Issues 5-7 (May 2006)|publisher = Walter de Gruyter|accessdate = December 26, 2016|url = https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/zkri.2006.221.issue-5-7/issue-files/zkri.2006.221.issue-5-7.xml}}</ref> The issue was devoted to the crystal chemistry of intermetallic compounds and included two articles on Laves' contributions to crystallography.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Fritz H. Laves – 100 years young|first = Erwin|last = Parthé|journal = Z. Kristallogr.|volume = 221|issue = 5–7|pages = 301–304|doi = 10.1524/zkri.2006.221.5-7.301|year = 2006|bibcode = 2006ZK....221..301P| s2cid=95605044 | url=https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:175931 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title = Fritz H. Laves – An ideal for generations|first = Werner|last = Fischer|journal = Z. Kristallogr.|volume = 221|issue = 5–7|pages = 305–310|doi = 10.1524/zkri.2006.221.5-7.305|year = 2006|bibcode = 2006ZK....221..305F| s2cid=97209733 }}</ref>
== Personal life == Laves was married to architect Melitta Druckenmüller (1907 – 1990),<ref name=genea>{{Cite web |title=Family tree of Fritz Henning Laves |url=https://gw.geneanet.org/camusa?lang=en&n=laves&oc=0&p=fritz+henning |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=Geneanet |language=en}}</ref> who assisted him with many of the illustrations in his publications.<ref name="hellner" /> They had three daughters together, Gracia, Charlotte, and Katharina.<ref name=genea></ref>
== Awards and honors == Laves was awarded the Roebling Medal, the highest honor of the Mineralogical Society of America, in 1969.<ref name="roebling">{{citation|first=Julian R. |last=Goldsmith |url=http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM55/AM55_541.pdf|journal=The American Mineralogist|title=Presentation of the Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America for 1969 to Fritz Laves|volume=55|year=1970|pages=541–544}}.</ref> He was a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and a corresponding member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.<ref name="hellner" /> He was also the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bochum.<ref name="hellner" />
== References == <references />
{{Crystallography}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laves, Fritz}} Category:1906 births Category:1978 deaths Category:German mineralogists Category:German crystallographers Category:Academic staff of ETH Zurich Category:Scientists from Göttingen Category:Academic staff of the University of Halle Category:Academic staff of Marburg University Category:University of Chicago people Category:Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Category:German metallurgists Category:University of Göttingen alumni Category:University of Innsbruck alumni Category:ETH Zurich alumni Category:Operation Paperclip