Hans Albrecht Bethe

BETHE-Hans Albrecht. Cornell University mourns the loss of one of science's most universally admired figures and a giant of 20th-century physics, Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, emeritus professor at Cornell University. A devoted instructor, Bethe joined Cornell in 1935 after fleeing Nazi Germany. During World War II he was a key figure in the building of the first atomic bomb as head of the theoretical physics division at Los Alamos. Later, Professor Bethe became a persistent champion of nuclear arms control, helping to persuade the White House to ban atmospheric nuclear tests in 1963 and antiballistic missile systems in 1972. In 1967, Bethe won the Nobel Prize for his theory on the production of energy in stars. Although he retired from active teaching in 1975, Bethe continued to arrive regularly at his office at the Newman Laboratory on the Cornell campus. We express our sincere condolences to his wife, Rose Ewald Bethe, a 1941 graduate of Cornell University, his son Henry Bethe, his daughter Monica Bethe, and his three grandchildren. Peter Meinig, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Cornell University Jeffrey S. Lehman, President, Cornell University