Andrew Sessler

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Andrew Marienhoff Sessler (1928–2014) was an American physicist and leader in accelerator science. He earned a mathematics degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University, studying the hyperfine structure of helium-3 for his dissertation. He taught at Ohio State University from 1954 to 1959, then joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he served as Lab Director from 1973 to 1980 and was an academic at the University of California, Berkeley. His research covered accelerator physics, particle physics, and plasma physics, and he also did theoretical work in quantum statistical mechanics, atomic physics, and superfluidity. Sessler was active in public science and humanitarian efforts, including studies on the long-term effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, opposition to landmines, and peace efforts in Chechnya. He served as president of the American Physical Society in 1998 and received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in 1970 and the Enrico Fermi Award in 2014. He lived in Oakland, California, and died in 2014 after a long illness.