{{Short description|American material scientist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Henry Ehrenreich | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|05|11}} | birth_place = Frankfurt, Germany | death_date = {{death date and age|2008|01|20|1928|05|11}} | death_place = Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S. | fields = Physics | workplaces = Harvard University<br>General Electric Research Laboratory | alma_mater = Cornell University<br>Columbia University | thesis_title = Scattering of Holes by Phonons in Germanium | thesis_url = https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.104.331 | thesis_year = 1955 | doctoral_advisor = Albert Overhauser | doctoral_students = Neil F. Johnson }} '''Henry Ehrenreich''' (May 11, 1928{{Snd}}January 20, 2008) was an American physicist and Harvard professor who did research on semiconductors and solid-state physics.
After fleeing Germany as a child, his family settled in New York where he attended university. He conducted research in a laboratory for General Electric, and his expertise in semiconductors and the physics of materials allowed him to advise two US departments. As a professor, he devoted much effort to improve the quality of education, eventually becoming the first ombudsman for Harvard.
==Personal life== Henry Ehrenreich was born on May 11, 1928, in Frankfurt to German Jews Frieda and Nathan Ehrenreich. His father was a prominent pianist and choral conductor, but in 1934 lost his position under the Nazi regime and was deported to Dachau in the wake of the Kristallnacht. He was released on December 7, 1938, and was able to flee Germany ten days later.<ref name="harvard-memorial">{{cite news |title=Henry Ehrenreich |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/02/henry-ehrenreich/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=Harvard Gazette |date=February 18, 2010}}</ref>
Henry was able to flee Germany via the Kindertransport, and was first taken to a foster home in England, but was soon sent to another foster home in Letchworth due to the evacuation of children from London. His German-speaking foster family there held Nazi sympathies and mistreated him. After his mother fled Germany on August 24, 1939, shortly before war broke out, he was placed with another family in Ditchling, where they could visit.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/>
The family finally obtained US visas in the fall of 1939, and was finally reunited in March 1940 in New York. His father found work two years later as a choral conductor in Buffalo and Henry enrolled in high school there. A New York State scholarship allowed him to study at Cornell where he graduated in 1950. A year earlier, he met Tema Hasnas, and they married in 1953.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/>
Notwithstanding his decision to become a theoretical physicist, Ehrenreich shared a love for music with his father and was a skilled pianist.<ref name="harvard-announcement">{{cite news |title=Scientist, educator Ehrenreich dies at 79 |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/02/scientist-educator-ehrenreich-dies-at-79/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=Harvard Gazette |date=February 7, 2008}}</ref> He was also an early adopter of e-mail and the World Wide Web, despite already being considered an "elder of the faculty" in 1996. He stated that he got a PowerBook because Macs were "for idiots" and "kind of lick your hands and are friendly", but was still asking people in the hall for technical help.<ref name="crimson-cyberprof">{{cite news |last1=Macmillan |first1=Valerie J. |title=CYBER Prof |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/10/26/cyber-prof-pbgbregory-nagy-jones-professor/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=October 26, 1996}}</ref>
He died on January 20, 2008, in Belmont,<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Ehrenreich Obituary (2008) - Boston Globe |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?pid=101631294 |website=www.legacy.com |access-date=December 8, 2020 |language=en}}</ref> leaving behind his wife Tema, his daughter, his two sons and 10 grandchildren.<ref name="harvard-announcement"/>
==Career== After graduating, Ehrenreich studied at Columbia University for an academic year, returning to Cornell in 1951 where he began work as an assistant teacher. He took an interest in semiconductors and related problems, and started writing his doctoral thesis under Albert Overhauser on the "Scattering of Holes by Phonons in Germanium",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ehrenreich |first1=H. |last2=Overhauser |first2=A. W. |title=Scattering of Holes by Phonons in Germanium |journal=Physical Review |date=October 15, 1956 |volume=104 |issue=2 |pages=331–342 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.104.331 |url=https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.104.331|url-access=subscription }}</ref> finishing it in 1955.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/>
To continue his research into surface and solid state science, he went to the General Electric Research Laboratory. During his time there, three children were born to the couple.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/>
He moved to Harvard University in 1960 and was appointed professor in 1963 at the Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research coincided with the boom in semiconductor applications, and Ehrenreich authored over 200 papers over the course of his career. He also co-authored the annual review ''Solid State Physics'' together with Frederick Seitz and David Turnbull.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/>
During the 1973 oil crisis, he was asked to assess solar photovoltaic cells, served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, and headed a study group on the matter from 1977 to 1981 before testifying to Congress in 1985.<ref name="harvard-memorial"/> He also served on the DARPA Materials Council of the Department of Defense for 20 years, and participated in numerous national and international committees.<ref name="harvard-announcement"/>
Apart from his scientific contributions, Ehrenreich actively tried to improve Harvard undergraduate education in science and engineering and chaired the Core Committee on Science between 1987 and 1999.<ref name="harvard-announcement"/> When the Core Curriculum at Harvard came under scrutiny in 1989, he remarked: "The present system we have is working pretty well. But you can always ask if we can do better."<ref name="crimson-review">{{cite news |last1=Solowey |first1=Eric S. |title=Ten-Year Review Focuses on Mechanics, Not Philosophy |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/6/8/ten-year-review-focuses-on-mechanics-not/ |access-date=December 8, 2020 |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=June 8, 1989}}</ref>
Ehrenreich was also part of a committee that decided on Free Speech Guidelines at Harvard in the wake of an intense debate about a Confederate Flag hung from a dorm room window in 1990.<ref name="crimson-debate">{{cite news |last1=Schugart |first1=Annie E. |last2=Vasquez|first2=Samuel |title=Political Correctness Debate Shook Harvard |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/5/27/political-correctness-debate-harvard/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=May 27, 2015}}</ref> In February 2003, Ehrenreich and Lydia Cummings were appointed ombudsmen for Harvard university, promising a "safe haven" for people affected by problems stemming from the university, with the office remaining independent of Harvard's administrative structure.<ref name="harvard-ombudsmen">{{cite news |title=Ombudsmen open for business |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2003/02/ombudsmen-open-for-business/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=Harvard Gazette |date=February 6, 2003}}</ref> They handled around 150 cases during the first year.<ref name="crimson-ombudsperson">{{cite news |last1=Habib |first1=May |title=Ehrenreich Sets Tone As First Ombudsperson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/25/ehrenreich-sets-tone-as-first-ombudsperson/?page=1 |access-date=December 7, 2020 |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=February 25, 2004}}</ref>
Ehrenreich was critical of a distinction between "strategic" applied research and "curiosity-driven" basic research, recounting the freedom to choose his own projects at the General Electric lab, and pointing to advances in semiconductor science that he saw as the result of an open stance towards basic research during the 50s.<ref name="halbleiterforschung">{{cite journal |last1=Ehrenreich |first1=H. |title=Halbleiterforschung in den 50er Jahren: Anwendungsorientierte Forschung und Zukunftstechnologie |journal=Physikalische Blätter |date=1997 |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=21–26 |doi=10.1002/phbl.19970530105 |s2cid=119595469 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/phbl.19970530105 |language=de |trans-title=Semiconductor research in the 1950s: application-oriented research and future technology |issn=1521-3722|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{DNB portal|1067217037}} *[https://authors.library.caltech.edu/5456/1/hrst.mit.edu/hrs/materials/public/Harvard_courses1994-2000/Harvard_courses.htm Materials science courses at Harvard University, 1994-2000 by Professor Henry Ehrenreich] *[https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/H-Ehrenreich-6711865 Publications by Henry Ehrenreich (on Researchgate)] *[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1150521 Program for a concert conducted by Henry's father Nathan in 1937]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenreich, Henry}} Category:20th-century American physicists Category:21st-century American physicists Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:American materials scientists Category:Harvard University faculty Category:1928 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Scientists from Frankfurt Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society