On
Saturday, June 3, 2006, a great and world-renowned scientist, humanitarian,
environmentalist, and naturalist passed away. Dr. Leopold Ernst Halpern, died in Tallahassee after a long and valiant
struggle with cancer.
Leopold Halpern was born in 1925 in Vienna, Austria. When Hitler’s
armies invaded that country in 1938, he escaped with his parents to Palestine.
After World War II, he returned to Austria to aid concentration camp survivors
and returning prisoners of war. Most of his own family had been killed in the
Holocaust. He is survived by one niece, Mrs. Alisa Lustig, of Toronto, Canada.
In 1952, he
received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Vienna. From 1953-1956, he
was named a Fullbright Scholar at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. In 1956, Dr. Halpern returned to Vienna to
become the Research Assistant to Nobel Laureate Erwin Schroedinger until 1959.
Dr. Halpern became
well known in the field of gravitational physics through his research at CERN
in Geneva, the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and at other prestigious
institutes and universities in Europe, Canada and the US.
In 1974, Nobel
Laureate Paul Dirac invited Dr. Halpern to collaborate with him as his Senior
Research Associate at Florida State University, where he then worked for the next 30 years. In 2003, Dr. Halpern was
chosen by his peers to be a Fellow of The American Physical Society, an honor
which is bestowed only to its most meritorious members. In the autumn of 2004,
Stanford University invited Dr. Halpern to join its Gravity Probe B Project to
help interpret data gathered by Earth satellite mounted gyroscopes which are
currently testing unverified predictions of Einstein’s general theory of
relativity. He actively worked on this Project at Stanford until three weeks
before his death.
Over the course of his lifetime, Dr. Leopold Halpern was a passionate
environmentalist and was actively engaged locally and globally in preserving
the environment and wildlife for future generations. He was also an
extraordinary naturopath and traditional healer and was inducted into the
African Medicine Man’s Society in recognition of the medical care he provided
during his time in Africa. Dr. Halpern also initiated and participated in
humanitarian works throughout the world, such as providing food to the most
needy. His energy, brilliance and kindness will be missed by many friends and
colleagues in every part of the world.
Dr. Halpern died
peacefully at the home of his friends, Gabriele Plendl and Kathleen Kirwin.
According to his wishes, they will scatter Dr. Halpern’s ashes in the eastern
plains of Africa. A celebration of his life is being planned, the details of
which will be publicized as soon as they are finalized.
If anyone is so
moved to do so, donations can be made in Leopold Halpern’s memory to
Big Bend
Hospice, 1723 Mahan Center Blvd. [Tallahassee, FL 32308-5428], an organization of
outstanding individuals who empowered Dr. Halpern to die with the extreme
dignity with which he lived.