Frederick Seitz

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Frederick Seitz (born July 4, 1911) is an American scientist. Seitz studied under Eugene Wigner at Princeton University, graduating in 1934. They invented the Wigner-Seitz unit cell, which is an important concept in solid state physics. In 1940, he published a prominent physics textbook, The Modern Theory of Solids.

Seitz has commented on the role of curiosity in the process of scientific discovery:

"Over a long time, things that people learn purely out of curiosity can have a revolutionary effect on human affairs." [1]

From 1949-1968 he served as a professor of physics at the University of Illinois. The Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the university is named for him.

He served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1962 until 1969. From 1968 through 1978, he was president of Rockefeller University.

Shortly before his retirement from Rockefeller University in 1979, Seitz began working as a paid permanent consultant for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, advising their research program.

By 1989, the CEO of R.J. Reynolds, William Hobbs, concluded that "Dr. Seitz is quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice." [2] However, in 1994, Seitz authored a report published by the George C. Marshall Institute, of which he was a founder and chairman of the board, entitled "Global warming and ozone hole controversies. A challenge to scientific judgment." In a broader discussion of environmental toxins, he concluded "there is no good scientific evidence that passive inhalation is truly dangerous under normal circumstances." [3]

Seitz continues to question whether global warming is anthropogenic [4]. He supports the position of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) on global warming and in an open letter invited scientists to sign the OISM's global warming petition. Seitz also signed the 1995 Leipzig Declaration.

Seitz is also critical of the view that CFCs are damaging to the ozone layer [5].