Jacques Pierre Friederich (Friedel) Sellschop (b. June 8, 1930, Luderitz, Namibia – d. August 4, 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa) was a South African scientist and pioneer in the field of applied nuclear physics.
Sellschop was born in Luderitz, Namibia, on June 8, 1930. He was educated at the University of Pretoria (BSc) and Stellenbosch University (MSc), and earned a PhD in Nuclear Physics at the University of Cambridge. On completing his education in England, he returned in South Africa on the advice of Basil Schonland, his mentor.
In February 1965, Sellschop was part of a group which identified the first neutrino found in nature, in one of South Africa's gold mines. The experiment was performed in a specially prepared chamber at a depth of 3 km in the ERPM mine near Boksburg. A plaque in the main building commemorates the discovery. The experiments also implemented a primitive neutrino astronomy and looked at issues of neutrino physics and weak interactions.
Friedel Sellschop is remembered as an innovative and visionary scientific leader. He contributed both to his university and country. From 1959 to 1988, Sellschop served as the University of Witwatersrand's chair of Nuclear Physics, the first person to hold such a chair in all of South Africa. In this capacity, as a young man, he began from nothing and developed a significant nuclear physics laboratory and research department. He was therefore the founding director of the Nuclear Physics Research Unit at the University of Witwatersrand in 1956. This laboratory was later renamed the Schonland Centre for Nuclear Sciences. In 2005, the Schonland Centre was donated to the state to be run as a National Facility by iThemba LABS.
Sellschop was Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1979 to 1983. He subsequently became Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) from 1984 to 1996. In this position, from which he retired, Sellschop assisted in creating funding policies and procedures that would ensure transparency in awarding research money.
Friedel Sellschop authored over 300 publications in international peer reviewed journals.
Friedel Sellschop died peacefully on August 4, 2002.
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Professor Friedel Sellschop, a world leader in the field of nuclear physics died peacefully at his Johannesburg home on Sunday.
Professor Friedel Sellschop, a world leader in the field of nuclear physics died peacefully at his Johannesburg home on Sunday, the University of the Witwatersrand said.
In a media statement on Monday the university said the
72-year-old emeritus professor’s most remarkable nuclear discovery was the first proof of the existence of the neutrino — a sub-atomic particle — in nature.
University representative Martha Molete said Sellschop was equally well known for pioneering the field of diamond physics. He exploited the unique properties of the nearly perfect diamond lattice to produce and study the highest energy photons ever
generated in a laboratory.
Sellschop thought of a diamond as a ”messenger from the deep”.
This poetic description is apt because a diamond is a chemical and physical ”prison” for material from the earth’s mantle 200km below the surface and from 2,5-billion years ago when the diamond was formed.
Sellschop and collaborators unwrapped the hidden geochemical secrets contained in diamonds, known as inclusions.
His later research was into diamonds’ high tech applications.
Although he officially retired in 1996 he never stopped working, and had nine patent applications registered at the time of his death.
Born in Luderitz, in what is now Namibia, in 1930, he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree by the University of Pretoria, a Master of Science by the University of Stellenbosch, and a PhD in
nuclear physics by the University of Cambridge.
In 1956 he was the founding director of the Nuclear Physics Research Unit which is today the Schonland Research Institute at Wits University. He later became the first holder of a chair in nuclear physics in South Africa. His numerous positions at Wits
included Dean of the Faculty of Science and later deputy vice-chancellor of research from 1984 to 1996.
He was a past president of the Royal Society of South Africa, and the South African Institute of Physics, and was scientific adviser to Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane.
Sellschop leaves his wife Sue, his sons Richard and Jacques and daughters Ingrid and Celia. – Sapa
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