John Schiffer (1930-2022)

John Schiffer (1930-2022)
Argonne National Laboratory

It is with great sadness that we would like to inform the Mössbauer Community worldwide of passing of Dr. John Schiffer of Argonne National Laboratory on June 6th, 2022, at the age of 91.

Dr. Schiffer was was born in Hungary and emigrated to USA in 1947. He finished his PhD work at Yale University in 1954. He was a well-known nuclear physicist when Rudolf Mössbauer published his thesis work in 1958. John Schiffer was credited for discovery of Mössbauer Effect in 57Fe, when he and W. Marshall published a short article in Physical Review Letters in 1959. At the time, John Schiffer was a Guggenheim fellow, visiting Harwell in England for a year. Upon his return to Argonne National Laboratory, he continued his work on gravitational red shift using the Mössbauer transition in 57Fe.

John was elected to National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of American Physical Society, and Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, among others. He was an Argonne Distinguished Fellow. He managed to publish lead author papers over six decades. He was a constant figure at seminars and workshops, and he was a big part of Argonne’s continuous efforts in various forms of Mössbauer Spectroscopy.

He will be dearly missed.

Esen Ercan Alp,
Argonne Distinguished Fellow,
Advanced Photon Source,
Argonne National Laboratory

Note: An extended obituary can be found at American Physical Society web site:
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202207/schiffer.cfm