Donald Huffman

Donald R. Huffman (1935 – November 2, 2025) was an American academic Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Arizona. With Wolfgang Krätschmer, he developed a technique in 1990 for the simple production of large quantities of C₆₀, or Buckminsterfullerene. Previously, in 1982~1983, he and Krätschmer had found, in a UV spectrum, the first signal of C₆₀ ever observed.

Huffman and his team were nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry but didn’t get it due to technicalities.

Huffman was featured prominently in "Race to Catch a Buckyball", a 1995 episode of the Nova documentary series.

Huffman died on November 2, 2025, at the age of 90.

Bibliography

• Bohren, Craig F. and Donald R. Huffman, Absorption and scattering of light by small particles, New York : Wiley, 1998, 530 p., ,

Awards

• Hewlett Packard Europhysics Prize, 1994 (with Wolfgang Kratschmer, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley)
• Materials Research Society, Gold Medal 1993, For Synthesis and Pioneering Study of Fullerenes

See also

• List of textbooks in electromagnetism

Notes