Gift creates professorship to educate physicists

“I am incredibly grateful for this gift from the Klema family. Having the ability to recruit leading researchers in experimental physics enhances our opportunities for innovation and research excellence at KU and continues Ernest Klema’s legacy of scientific discovery,” said Carl Lejuez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Ernest Klema was born in Wilson, Kansas. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the KU College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in 1941. He then went on to receive a master of arts in physics from the university in 1942. During his academic career at KU, he was a Summerfield Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.

He was attending Princeton University for his doctorate when his project was transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was at Los Alamos that Klema worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.

After World War II, his studies took him to the University of Illinois and then Rice University in Houston, where he earned his doctorate in physics in 1951. From there, he held several professorships and research positions, including work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. It was at Argonne that Klema contributed to the development of the electron microscope.

In 1968, Klema became a professor and dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University. He was also appointed adjunct professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1973, where he researched issues relating to technology and society. Upon retirement, Klema became emeritus professor of Engineering Science and dean emeritus of the College of Engineering at Tufts.

The professorship carries the name of J.D. Stranathan, a KU professor and chair in the Department of Physics, who retired in 1969. Stranathan earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at KU in 1921 and 1924 respectively, and his doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1928. He joined the faculty at KU in 1920, and Klema studied under him as a graduate student. Stranathan is known for writing a pioneering textbook, “The ‘Particles’ of Modern Physics.”

Hume Feldman, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said, “Professor Klema’s gift is of great value to the department as we strive to increase our ranking, enlarge our profile and increase our visibility. With both state and federal funding on the decline, we rely on our alumni and friends to support both our teaching and research mission.”