Professor Stanley Prussin died at home in Kensington, California on August 20, 2015 after a lengthy illness.
He received his B.S. (1960) from MIT, and his M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) from the University of Michigan, all in Chemistry. After postdoctoral work at LBNL, he joined the Nuclear Engineering Department at Berkeley in 1966, where he served until his transition to Professor of the Graduate School in 2004.
Professor Prussin was internationally recognized in nuclear physics, chemistry, and instrumentation. He was the author of a widely used book, Nuclear Physics for Applications: A Model Approach.
After 9/11, Prussin’s research turned towards nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear forensics. Many of his former students became senior figures in the DOE labs.
Prussin was solicitous for the University’s mission of public education for the broad representation of California’s citizens, and served briefly as Associate Dean for Special Programs in the College.
In his final three years, he created a new course with Professor Michael Nacht “Nuclear Technology and Policy”, served on an IEEE/APS national study of the Domestic Nuclear Defense Organization, and did pioneering work in nuclear forensics. He mentored his four remaining Ph.D. students up to the week of his passing.
He was a beloved colleague, student advisor, and mentor, and made valuable contributions to the radiochemistry, nuclear security policy, and education focus areas within the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium. He mentored several NSSC graduate students and many other nuclear engineering and chemistry students at the University of California Berkeley. Through his strong relationships with the national laboratories, he has been able to provide many of those students with opportunities to conduct research in-residence at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Professor Prussin is survived by his wife Traudel, herself a chemist and artist, and daughters Stephanie and Alexa.
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