Brosl Hasslacher

Dr. Brosl Hasslacher – Age 64, a longtime resident of Nambe and noted theoretical physicist and staff member in T division at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1982 to 2004, passed away on Friday, November 11th, 2005 following a lengthy illness. Born in New York City on May 13, 1941, Brosl attended Harvard University and went on to receive his PhD in Physics from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1971. From there he went on to work at various places including the University of Illinois, CalTech, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and several institutes in France and Switzerland; before moving to Los Alamos in 1981 as a Visiting Scientist at the Center for Nonlinear Studies. Brosl joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in October 1982 as a staff member for T division and went on to found the Institute for Physical Science at Los Alamos in 1994. Brosl took an entrepreneurial leave of absence from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999 to found, (along with four other scientists) the Molecular Electronics Corporation which had as its goal the self-assembly of diverse molecular electronics products. In 2004, Brosl was one of the founders of Nanostar Inc., a company that was trying to commercialize unique devices coming out of research into nanotechnology. Brosl's theoretical interests ranged far and wide from field theory to quantum-gravity and black holes, from lattice-gas hydrodynamics to robotics and biochemistry and the possibility of living machines. In the last few months, Brosl had been working on theories of surface nano-plasmonics and Hawking radiation from toy black holes. Brosl is survived by a daughter, Elisabeth, two sons, Davi and Manuel, and former wife, Marie Cazenave of France. He is also survived by his mother, a sister, and three granddaughters. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 19th at 3 o'clock in the afternoon in the chapel of Block-Salazar Mortuary. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the charity of your choice in Brosl's name. A formal memorial fund will be established on a later date. The family of Dr. Brosl Hasslacher has placed their trust in the Rivera family of Block-Salazar Mortuary & Community Crematory for his funeral arrangements.