JERRY BRAUNSTEIN, MA’47
JERRY BRAUNSTEIN MA’47, a physical chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project and later at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, died Sept. 17, 2014. He was 91. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York, where he was elected to Sigma Xi, he worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University. After World War II he received his master’s degree from Wesleyan and then his PhD from Northwestern University in Quantum Chemistry. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington and later served as a professor at the University of Maine at Orono for 12 years before transitioning to a research position in physical chemistry at Oak Ridge. His research focused on thermodynamics and electrochemistry of molten salts, work that led to two patents and 100 journal articles. He was co-editor of a series of books, “Advances in Molten Salt Chemistry.” An opera aficionado, he attended opera performances in many locations, both national and international. As well, he had been a supernumerary in more than a dozen opera productions in Knoxville, Tenn., and he taught courses on opera at the community college continuing learning program in Oak Ridge. Among those who survive are his wife, Catherine Vallet Braunstein; three sons; one daughter; his son-in-law, Jeffrey R. Woulfin ’01; and six grandchildren.