Arthur H. Rosenfeld

Rosenfeld was born in Birmingham, Alabama on June 22, 1926. He spent his early years in New Orleans during the Great Depression. His father was an expert in sugar cane cultivation, which took the family to Egypt when he was six years old. Rosenfeld coauthored a book on nuclear physics with Fermi, who was noted for building the world's first nuclear reactor. In 1954, after earning his Doctor of Philosophy in physics, and with a recommendation from Fermi, Rosenfeld accepted a position as a teaching physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. ==Career==

Physics professor At Berkeley, Rosenfeld joined the University of California Department of Physics and the particle physics research group at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) led by Nobel Laureate Luis Walter Alvarez. Alvarez went on to win the Nobel Prize with research backed by his team of scientists that included Rosenfeld. Energy efficiency leader A turning point in his career came as a result of the second Arab oil embargo in 1973, when he realized that one of the key vulnerabilities of Americans was their inefficient and wasteful use of limited energy. While most researchers at the time were trying to find ways of producing more energy, Rosenfeld committed himself from then on to reducing energy use. Other states and countries became aware that although homes in California were loaded with new energy-consuming appliances, such as computers, large-screen TVs, iPods, PlayStations, central air conditioners, hot tubs and swimming pools, their per person energy use had remained the same as it was 30 years earlier. An executive from the utilities contacted Rosenfeld's lab to demand they fire him. It was estimated that they alone would save Californian's $8 billion over the following decade. In 1980 Rosenfeld helped form the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit organization aimed at promoting energy efficiency policies and technologies. In 2014, leading members of the organization paid tribute to his work, with many of its members crediting him for giving them inspiration during their careers. At that event, Rosenfeld said that his own inspiration for establishing the organization was his "fury" at president Jimmy Carter's plan to spend $88 billion on alternative fuel development, but almost nothing toward energy conservation. He realized that someone with his expertise was needed to re-focus attention to conserving energy, which he felt was the best and easiest way to reduce energy consumption. Rosenfeld is the author or co-author of about 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers. From 1994 to 1999, Rosenfeld was a senior advisor for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the United States Department of Energy. Former U.S. secretary of energy, Steven Chu, explains that by Rosenfeld's calculation, having white roofs on all flat-roofed buildings and for pavements, would be the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world for 18 years. In 2005 California added cool roofs to its Title 24 building standards. ==Personal life and death==

Rosenfeld died at his home in Berkeley, California on January 27, 2017, aged 90. The cause of his death was pneumonia. His wife of 53 years, Roselyn Bernheim "Roz" Rosenfeld, had died in 2009. He is survived by two daughters, Dr. Margaret Rosenfeld at the University of Washington Children's Hospital in Seattle and Dr. Anne Hansen at Harvard Children's Hospital in Boston; His sons-in-law Professor Daniel S. Weld, University of Washington, and Professor Jonathan Hansen, Harvard. He had six grandchildren: Oliver, Julian and Nathalie Hansen & Adam, Galen and Leah Weld, ages 22 to 16 as of 2017. ==Honors and recognition==

• '''Rosenfeld's law'''. He is credited with an observation known as Rosenfeld's law, which states that the amount of energy required to produce one dollar of GDP has decreased by about one percent per year since 1845. • Rosenfeld Effect. To explain how California's per capita electricity usage managed to stay flat for 40 years, while usage for the nation went 50 percent higher, the term "Rosenfeld effect" was created. • The Rosenfeld: a unit of measure. In 2010, over fifty leaders from 26 institutions worldwide in the field of energy efficiency, proposed a new unit to represent electricity savings, and named it the "Rosenfeld". • Honorary degree, Durham University, 1983 ==Awards==

• Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest, 1986 • Carnot Award for Energy Efficiency, U.S. Department of Energy, 1993 • Berkeley Citation, University of California, 2001 • Enrico Fermi Award, 2006 • Economist Innovator of the Year Award, 2008 • National Association of Engineering (NAE) Membership, 2010 • Global Energy Prize (Russia), 2011 • National Medal of Technology (U.S.), 2011 • Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, 2016 ==Notes==