Frank Press, A life of magnitude

Abstract

Frank Press, 19th president of the National Academy of Sciences, died on Wednesday, January 29, 2020, at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 95. His career spanned the golden age of postwar science, and its arc took him to the highest levels of leadership in academia and government. Frank served in many roles with great distinction and is remembered for his sharp intellect and steady leadership and for his self-composure, fair-mindedness, and good judgment. Few scientists of the past century have had such an enduring impact on United States science policy and the organization of the federal scientific enterprise. Frank Press. Image credit: Ohio History Connection/Joseph Munroe. Frank was born in New York City, the child of Russian emigres, graduating from the Samuel J. Tilden High School in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn in 1941. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the City College of New York in 1944 and enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University. Frank married Billie Kallick in 1946, when he was 21 years old. She was the love of his life and constant companion until her death in 2009. At Columbia, Frank studied sound propagation in oceans under the supervision of the geophysicist and oceanographer Maurice “Doc” Ewing. He received his doctorate in 1949, the same year that Ewing founded the Lamont Geological Observatory on a cliff overlooking the Hudson River. With generous funding from the Defense Department, Ewing and his two assistant professors, Frank and Joe Worzel, quickly developed Lamont into a world-class research laboratory. Frank learned a lot from Ewing’s hard-driving style and quoted his advice, “Make a better instrument or measure in a place where no one else has been and a great discovery will come your way.” Following this dictum, Frank expanded … [↵][1]1Email: tjordan{at}usc.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1