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Reuben Rudman (1937 – 2006)

[Rudman]Professor Reuben Rudman died suddenly on February 15 in Jerusalem, Israel. He was born in New York and received an M.A. degree from Columbia U. (1957) and rabbinic ordination as well as M.H.L. from Yeshiva U. (1959). He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1966 from the Polytechnic Inst. of Brooklyn under the guidance of Ben Post. Reuben devoted his scientific career to crystallography: research, teaching and serving the crystallographic community. His research interest included the systematic study of phase transitions exhibited by pseudo-spherical molecules supplemented by differential calorimetric investigations; instrumentation for low temperature X-ray diffraction both for single crystal and powder methods. He has published more than 70 scientific papers in these fields. He served as chairman and member of a number of committees of IUCr, ACA and Gordfon Research Conferences. He was professor of chemistry at Adelphi U., Garden City, NY, for 35 years, where he taught general and inorganic chemistry, solid state chemistry and crystallography until his retirement in 2003.

His book, “Low-temperature X-ray diffraction. Apparatus and Techniques” published by Plenum Press, N.Y, was written during his sabbatical in Israel 1973-74, where he served as a visiting professor at the Inst. of Chemistry of the Hebrew U. Jerusalem. He returned to the Hebrew U. again after his retirement and volunteered to teach X-ray crystallography to graduate students of chemistry until his sudden death.

Reuben was beloved by his many friends and colleagues, he was an excellent teacher highly appreciated by his students. He is survived by his wife Idelle, five children, grandchildren and great-granddaughter.

Mayer Itzchak and Shmuel Cohen
2 September 2008