Arnold Herman Kritz

Arnold Herman Kritz, professor emeritus in the department of physics at Lehigh University, died on 16 April 2018 at his home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, surrounded by family.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island on 6 January 1935, Arnold earned his ScB from Brown University in 1956 and his PhD in physics from Yale University in 1961. He married Barbara Borodach in 1957. He is survived by his wife, three children, nine grandchildren, and a great granddaughter.

In 1969, after doing research in industry, Arnold joined the faculty at Hunter College, where he published a popular text, Introduction to Problem Solving, and served as department chair. Subsequently, he joined the department of physics at Lehigh University, where he served as its chair from 1991 to 1998. Arnold’s top priorities as chair were to mentor junior faculty and to expand the department’s research portfolio.

Arnold led a research program in computational plasma physics. His computer codes describing the propagation of electron cyclotron waves for heating and generating currents in plasmas are used worldwide, both for understanding present-day experiments and for planning new experiments that seek to confine plasmas for the purpose of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy. He supervised the work of research scientists, postdocs, and students, and he worked hard to ensure each one’s professional success. When Arnold was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, he was recognized “for the development of simulation tools to study wave heating, current drive, and transport in plasmas, and for inspired leadership in a teamed approach to large computers.”

As the need to accurately simulate expensive experiments in nuclear fusion became more acute, Arnold played a leading role in shaping, at a national level, the way computational physics in large computing environments should be approached. He served a four-year term at the US Department of Energy, where he was in charge of the modeling and simulation branch of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. Arnold had a talent for bringing people together and led large multi-institutional collaborations that included research centers across the world.

Arnold was a visiting research fellow at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He spent three sabbaticals at the Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas in Lausanne, Switzerland. He held visiting research appointments at several major laboratories in the US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. He recently served on the advisory committee of The Center for Magnetic Fusion Theory in Hefei, China.

In 2005, a two-day symposium on the future of integrated modeling was held at Princeton University to honor Arnold’s 70th birthday. Scientists from across the world came to celebrate Arnold’s scientific achievements.

Throughout his career, Arnold balanced his professional life with a rich personal life. He was greatly devoted to his family and shared his love of the outdoors with them, notably hiking, camping, and skiing. Always competitive, Arnold enjoyed playing duplicate bridge, earning the title of Bronze Life Master.

Most of all, Arnold was quick to acknowledge that he could not have achieved what he did without the unwavering support and love of Barbara, his wife of over 60 years. Arnold, with his great zest for life, will be greatly missed by his many colleagues, friends, and family.