Quick Facts
Biography
Alan M. Portis (July 17, 1926 – September 6, 2010) was an American a solid-state physicist.
Career
He was the dean of engineering at Berkeley as well as an engineering professor. He was an early researcher in electron paramagnetic resonance. He also founded the Berkeley Physics Laboratory. For the development of laboratory courses and curricula at UC Berkeley, he received the Millikan Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers. Portis was the doctoral advisor of the 2000 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Alan J. Heeger.
Alan Portis was a Guggenhein Fellow in 1965. Portis was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February 1976. He was also a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Alan was also the first Director of the Lawrence Hall of Science which overlooks the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the first cyclotron ever built where EO Lawrence and Glenn Seaborg did their work. Alan was also one of the founders of the Search for Excellence in Science and Mathematics (SESAME) Group at UC Berkeley. He was both a scientist and a science educator.