NBA History of Science Seminar: Frank A. von Hippel

Frank A. von Hippel (University of Arizona), “Bohr’s friendships with refugee scientists in a time of war, 1933–1945”

Frank will present a history of scientists during the rise of Nazism and through World War II, with a focus on Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen and the scientific refugees who passed through it, including Frank’s grandfather Arthur von Hippel and his great-grandfather James Franck. The narrative will go from Germany and Turkey in 1933 to Copenhagen in 1934 to America in 1936, and then to the monumental events of the war. Frank will discuss the special role that Bohr played in the lives of the refugee scientists, including within his family.

Frank A. von Hippel is a professor of environmental health sciences in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the Director of the Center for One Health Innovation & Practice at the University of Arizona. Frank was born and raised in Alaska, received his A.B. in biology at Dartmouth College in 1989, and his Ph.D. in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. He taught for Columbia University (1996–1999), the University of Alaska Anchorage (2000–2016), and Northern Arizona University (2016–2021) before moving to the University of Arizona in 2021. Frank has taught ecology field courses in over twenty countries, and conducted research in the Americas, Africa and Australia. Frank also writes about science history. He is the author of The Chemical Age (University of Chicago Press, 2020) and he is the host of the Science History Podcast.