Deceased--George K. Fraenkel

George K. Fraenkel
July 27th, 1921 to June 10th, 2009

"George K. Fraenkel, Pioneering Chemist, Dies at 87"

by

Dennis Hevesi

June 27th, 2009

The New York Times

George K. Fraenkel, one of the first chemists to use electronic techniques to explore the fundamental structure of molecules, a breakthrough that has led to advances in several fields of science, died in Manhattan on June 10. He was 87 and lived in Manhattan.

His wife, Eva Stolz Fraenkel, confirmed the death.

Dr. Fraenkel was chairman of the chemistry department at Columbia University from 1965 until 1968, when he was appointed dean of the university's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Starting in the early 1950s, when he was a professor, Dr. Fraenkel was one of several chemists who developed high-sensitivity, high-resolution spectrometers that could track the spin of electrons and thereby obtain information on very small structures.

"His work has laid the foundation for later work toward understanding the properties of many biological systems," Jack H. Freed, the Frank and Robert Laughlin professor of physical chemistry at Cornell University, said in an interview on Friday.

Dr. Fraenkel's research helped develop and apply techniques of what is called electron spin resonance for applications in chemistry research, including determining the electronic structure of molecules and how molecules move in liquids. Dr. Freed said the methods Dr. Fraenkel helped pioneer had since been applied to research in physics, biology and medicine.

Among other developments based on Dr. Fraenkel's work, "we are now determining the structure and function of medically important proteins implicated in Parkinson's disease, how viral proteins insert themselves into cells, medical imaging, memory function and quantum computing," Dr. Freed said.

George Kessler Fraenkel was born in Deal, N.J., on July 27, 1921, and grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. He was one of three children of Osmond and Helene Esberg Fraenkel. His father was general counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Fraenkel graduated from Harvard in 1942. His graduate studies at Harvard were interrupted when he was hired by the National Defense Research Committee and placed in charge of a team that developed electronic equipment to measure the explosive power of bombs. After World War II, he enrolled at Cornell, where he received his doctorate in 1949. Soon after, he was hired as an instructor at Columbia.

Dr. Fraenkel was dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1968 until 1983 and its vice president for special projects from 1983 to 1986. He returned to the chemistry department in 1986 and continued to teach until his retirement in 1991.

Dr. Fraenkel's first two marriages ended in divorce. Besides his wife, whom he married in 1990, Dr. Fraenkel is survived by his sister, Nancy Wechsler; six stepchildren, Patricia, William, Louis, Eva, Mary Anne and Charles Gilleran; and one step-granddaughter.