Daniel Joseph Zaffarano

Daniel Joseph Zaffarano died peace-fully in Ames, Iowa, on 3 December 2004 of pneumonia. He was a talented, productive physicist and administrator at Iowa State University, and he had a congenial, outgoing, and caring personality. His love of music made him equally comfortable in the music and physics departments. He was very proud of his son and five daughters; they and his wife, Suzanne, were by his side during his last days.

Dan was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 16 December 19×7. In 1939 he received his BS in physics from the Case Institute of Applied Science (now Case Western Reserve University). He then joined the National Carbon Co (a part of Union Carbide and Carbon Corp, now Union Carbide Corp) in Cleveland, where he became involved in the development and application of the battery used in proximity fuzes during World War II.

After the war, a fuze project colleague of Dan’s, A. C. G. Mitchell, who was on leave from Indiana University, persuaded Dan to join him at Indiana for graduate work. Shortly after August 1946, he started that work; he completed his MS in physics two years later. For his doctoral work, he participated in the design, construction, and use of a state-of-the-art beta-ray spectrometer. Four papers in which he described data taken with that instrument were the basis of his 1949 dissertation.

He subsequently joined Iowa State as a research associate professor in the physics department and in the Ames Laboratory of the US Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC, now the US Department of Energy). The director of the lab, Frank Spedding, had ordered a 70-MeV synchrotron from General Electric Co in 1947; for the next 22 years, Dan oversaw the use of that facility. He also helped plan and staff a 5-MW heavy-water research reactor later installed by the USAEC near the synchrotron.

Dan spent an enjoyable 16 months in England during the mid-1950s, when he was the Office of Naval Research liaison scientist in Europe. In 1961, he became chair of Iowa State’s physics department and chief of the Ames Lab physics division. The fruits of his leadership included the recruiting of new faculty, growth in the number of graduate students, and a heightened level of sociability and interaction in the department. Dan’s foresight and efforts resulted in the construction of a physics building addition in the mid-1960s. The enormous positive impact of that facility on the department is arguably his major legacy to Iowa State. In winter 2004, the building was designated the Daniel J. Zaffarano Physics Addition. He also supervised PhD programs and regularly taught introductory courses. In 1967 the university honored him as a Distinguished Professor in Sciences and Humanities.

Four years later Dan was named vice president for research and dean of Iowa State’s graduate college. He was highly popular and respected in those positions, and carried out his work with an enthusiasm that continued until his retirement. In 1977 Dan convinced Iowa State to host a well-attended international conference on the potential use of icebergs as a source of fresh water. He strongly supported the establishment of a university-wide biotechnology program, for which initial state funding was provided in 1986. That program is thriving today.

After his retirement in 1988, the university established the Zaffarano Prize, given annually to the PhD recipient with the best publication record. Questions about the publication of research results were a standard part of the exit interview Dan conducted with each student. In 2002, on the occasion of his 85th birthday, colleagues and alumni celebrated his Iowa State career at a festival in his honor.

Dan’s efforts during his career were not limited to Iowa State, however. In 1974, he directed a $3 million state project to explore the environmentally friendly strip mining of Iowa coal and the use of physical methods to reduce its high sulfur content. He was active with numerous groups, including the Argonne Universities Association, the Universities Research Association for Fermilab, and the Council of Graduate Schools in the US.

Dan actively participated in community musical organizations. He enjoyed singing and was founder and first president of the Ames Choral Society. He and his wife, Suzy, provided leadership for the Ames Town and Gown Chamber Music Association, the Ames International Orchestra Festival Association, and the Friends of Music of Iowa State’s music department. One of his last public appearances was at the department’s scholarship musicale in the fall of 2004. We miss him.