Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky

Panofsky was born the son of renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky in Berlin, Germany. He spent much of his early life in Hamburg, where his father was a Professor of Art History. At the age of 15 he moved with his family to the United States and entered Princeton University. He received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1938 and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1942. In April 1942 he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

From 1945 to 1951, Panofsky held an assistant and then associate professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, before permanently establishing himself as Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Between 1961 and 1984, he was the director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and continued to serve as director emeritus. He was also on the Board of Directors of the Arms Control Association from 1996 until 1999 and remained a director emeritus until his death.

Panofsky was a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and won the Matteucci Medal in 1996 for his fundamental contributions to physics. He was also a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the Franklin Medal (1970), the Ernest O. Lawrence Medal, the Leo Szilard Award and the Enrico Fermi Award.

During his college days, Panofsky was called "Pief" by fellow students who found his full name unpronounceable. The childhood nickname seemed to suit the ebullient physicist, and it stayed with him throughout his long life. His elder brother, Hans A. Panofsky, was "an atmospheric scientist who taught at Pennsylvania State University for 30 years and who was credited with several advances in the study of meteorology". Their father, Erwin Panofsky, had been a "highly distinguished" professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. In 1999, the new "Panofsky Lane", in that Institute's faculty housing complex, was named in Erwin Panofsky's honor.

• Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (1961)
• California Institute of Technology Alumni Distinguished Service Award (1966)
• California Scientist of the Year Award (1967)
• National Medal of Science (1969)
• Franklin Medal (1970)
• Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (1961)
• California Institute of Technology Alumni Distinguished Service Award (1966)
• California Scientist of the Year Award (1967)
• National Medal of Science (1969)
• Franklin Medal (1970)
• Annual Public Service Award, Federation of American Scientists (1973)
• Enrico Fermi Award (1979)
• Leo Szilard Award (1982)
• Shoong Foundation Hall of Fame in Science (1983)
• Hilliard Roderick Prize (AAAS-1991)
• an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Uppsala University, Sweden
• Matteucei Medal (Rome, 1997)
• International Scientific and Technological Award from the People's Republic of China (2001)

Panofsky died at the age of 88 on September 24, 2007 in Los Altos, California, from a heart attack.

Panofsky stayed active at SLAC until his last day of life.

• Classical Electricity and Magnetism by Wolfgang Panofsky and Melba Phillips (1955, 1962, 1983, 1990): This book gives an accurate treatment of electricity and magnetism in its classical form and explains in detail the transition to its relativistic formulation. The original ideas are explained in great detail and thus make the book extraordinarily understandable, whereas modern books many times fall short in such explanations.