Andrew Vincent Granato

Granato, Andrew Vincent CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Andrew Vincent Granato, 89, of Champaign died at Carle Hospital, Urbana, on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Andrew Granato was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Salvatore Granato and Francesca (Polizzi) Granato. He graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar and was also in the Naval Reserves while attending the University of Rochester. For half a century, Andrew was a world-renouned physicist at the University of Illinois (recruited to be a researcher in the field of condensed matter physics), publishing more than 170 peer-reviewed papers and the primary sponsor of 32 Ph.D. students, and focused on several lines of research in structural weaknesses and imperfections in materials. He received BS (1948) and MS (1950) degrees from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy) and a Ph.D. in 1955 from Brown University (Providence, R.I.). He was a research associate at Brown from 1955-57. From 1957-59 he was a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois. From 1959-61 he was a visiting professor in Aachen, Germany, holding a Guggenheim Fellowship for the first year. He was appointed associate professor for physics in 1961 and professor of physics in 1964. During 1971-72 he was an associate in the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois. In 1976, he received a U.S. Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Research at the Technical University in Aachen. He was a member of the executive committee of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Acoustical Society of America, and a member of the American Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was chairman of the International Conference on Internal Friction and Ultrasonic Attenuation held in Urbana, Ill. (1985). In 1987-88, he was the Bernd T. Matthias visiting scholar at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and guest research fellow at the Institute for Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo. His research included such topics as crystalline materials (dislocations), impurity and interstitial atoms, and behavior of glassy materials and the glass transition (regarded as one of the most important problems still to be fully resolved in condensed matter physics). He also received several fellowships and awards (including the Zener Prize as well as the Guggenheim and Humboldt fellowships) for his work. Andrew's life's work was about the importance of research and supporting the researchers who are the future of science and innovation. Andrew is survived by his four children, Samuel Charles Granato (Susy) of Columbus, Ohio, Andrea Marguerite Frankenfield (David) of Purcellville, Va., Sarah Francesca Yeates of Auchenflower, Queensland (Australia) and Ann Vivian Welch (Rick) of Champaign; three grandchildren, Andrew Granato, Willis Welch and Alexander Granato; and a sister, Vivian Granato of Delmar. He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Pauline Brassard Granato. Visitation was held on Wednesday, June 10, at Owens Funeral Home, 101 N. Elm St., Champaign. Burial was held in Prairieview Cemetery, Savoy. Memorial donations can be made to the Unitarian Universalist Church, 309 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801.