Elias Burstein

Elias (Eli) Burstein, professor of physics emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, died on June 17. He was 99, only three months shy of a century.

Professor of physics and astronomy at Penn since 1958, he enjoyed a prolific career that spanned seven decades. He did it all. He worked on fundamental studies of infrared photoconductivity in silicon and germanium, and he carried out groundbreaking research on semiconductors, insulators, metals and two-dimensional electron plasmas in semiconductors. Much of this work improved the understanding of optical properties in the solid state. In his later years at Penn, he was known for his work on SERS, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering; these SERS ideas continue to influence researchers in present-day metamaterials. Finally, near the end of his career, he was deeply engaged in understanding optical properties of fullerenes (buckyballs) and other carbon structures. In 1983, he was named the Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics (Almanac March 29, 1983). He trained well over 40 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom have had very distinguished careers of their own. Mark Trodden, current chair of the department, commented, “Eli was one of the most distinguished faculty in our department’s history, and his impact can be seen in much of what we do today.”

In addition to physics research, Dr. Burstein, along with Bob Hughes, chemistry, Bob Madden, metallurgy, and Norm Hixson, associate dean of engineering, founded the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) in 1960, as an academically unique, interdisciplinary materials research laboratory. They obtained the first LRSM grants from the Department of Defense, and starting in 1972, the materials center garnered funding support continuously from the National Science Foundation. Arjun Yodh, the current LRSM director noted, “Eli was engaged with the LRSM for almost 60 years, and recently, we have enjoyed his company almost every year at our annual ‘Burstein Lecture,’ named in his honor.”

Dr. Burstein received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1938 and his master’s degree from the University of Kansas in 1941. He took graduate courses in chemistry and physics at MIT and in physics at Catholic University, before joining the US Naval Research Laboratory’s Crystal Branch in the Physics Section. He became head of that branch and also headed the Semiconductors Branch. His doctoral studies were interrupted by WWII, although he subsequently obtained four honorary doctorates.

Dr. Burstein was called a “pioneering physicist” by The New York Times and recognized as one of the first scientists to do research on semiconductors and insulators. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1979, was named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 1980 and was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002.

He is survived by his wife, Rena; daughters, Joanna Mitro (Gary), Sara Donna and Mimi (Glenn Frantz); and grandchildren, Graham and Susanna Mitro.