Werner P. Wolf PhD

It is with great sadness that we write to notify you of the death of Prof. Werner Wolf at the age of 95. Born in Vienna Austria, he immigrated to England following Hitler's Anschluss in 1938. Having won a scholarship to Oxford, he received his DPhil for his research on low-temperature magnetic salts in 1954. Also that year he married Elizabeth (Liz) a fellow Oxford physics graduate student. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last September. In 1963, following several academic positions at Oxford and a year as a Research Fellow at Harvard, he accepted a joint appointment at Yale in the newly-created Department of Engineering and Applied Science and the Physics Department. His research continued to be focused on magnetic materials at very low temperatures. He published over 150 papers and supervised the Ph.D theses of 20 graduate students with whom he developed close bonds. In addition to his research responsibilities he taught undergraduates, including those who were not science-oriented, and brought science demonstrations to New Haven high schools. He was very proud to be awarded the Sheffield Distinguished Teaching Award by the Yale Faculty of Engineering. He also found time to devote to various administrative positions, including 15 years as Chairman of two different Yale Departments and the Council on Engineering, 7 years as Director of Undergraduate Studies, 4 as Director of Graduate Studies, and 4 as Director of Educational Affairs for Engineering. He was very involved in the successful efforts to preserve and rebuild the science of Engineering at Yale in the 1990s. Werner is survived by Liz, his wife of 71 years, his sister Brigitte Lankenau, his grandchildren Jeremy and Eleanor Wolf and his daughter-in-law, Robin Wolf. His son Peter pre-deceased him in 2023 and his daughter Mary-Anne passed away on September 20, 2025. His proud grandchildren will remember his love of classical music, "interesting" cheeses and good wine and, especially, the use of dry ice, liquid nitrogen and a miniature cannon at their elementary school science fairs. Funeral services for Dr. Wolf will be held privately.