Donald N. Langenberg, 1932-2019
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- Published: Wednesday, February 13 2019 01:34
Donald N. Langenberg, a physicist who served as the Chancellor of the University System of Maryland from 1990-2002, died January 25, 2019, at his home in Baltimore. He was 86.
After receiving his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, Langenberg researched low temperature solid state physics at the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1972 he became the lab's director, and subsequently held a number of senior administrative positions at Penn. He was the Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation from 1980-82, then Chancellor of the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he oversaw the merger of two large and distinct entities. From there, he was selected to oversee the 11-campus University System of Maryland, which had been reorganized just two years earlier.
Langenberg had a deep commitment to education. He was born in rural North Dakota to deaf parents, and left home as a toddler to stay with his grandparents in Iowa, learn English and start school. He later returned to North Dakota, where he graduated from high school before entering Iowa State University for an undegraduate degree in physics.
After retiring as USM Chancellor, he remained very active, chairing the Committee on Undergraduate Physics Education Research and Implementation of the National Academies of Science and serving on the National Research Council's Committee on the Study of Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States. Other roles included work as the Vice-Chair of the National Council for Science and the Environment and on the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. Langenberg served as President of the American Physical Society in 1993.
Prof. Langenberg's obituary in the Baltimore Sun: https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-donald-langenberg-20190211-story.html
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