Walter Kohn (1923–2016), Theoretical Physicist, Chemist

Walter Kohn, born on March 9, 1923 in Vienna, was a theoretical physicist and chemist. He made substantial contributions to understanding electronic properties of materials, earning him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1998 (with John Pople). Kohn fled Austria to England on a Kindertransport after Austria's Anschluss in 1938. His parents, Salomon and Gittel, were murdererd during the Holocaust. Kohn came to the United States via Canada, earned a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University and went on to work at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Santa Barbara until his death in 2016.