Henri A. Levy

Following a postdoctoral position with Pauling, Levy moved to Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) where he spent the rest of his career.^[1] He built on the work of Ernest O. Wollan and Clifford G. Shull in determining the structure of crystalline solids such as Xenon tetrafluoride,^[2] sucrose^[3] and glucose^[4] using neutron diffraction. His work particularly focused on determining the positions of hydrogen atoms in crystals, something that neutron diffraction can do with higher precision than X-ray diffraction. He pioneered automated methodology for neutron diffraction studies,^[5] along with several computer programs for analysis of crystallographic data.^[6] He was president of the American Crystallographic Association in 1965.^[1] In his later life, Levy worked on electron tomography of large biological complexes, particularly those transcribing DNA.^[7]

Levy Island, in Crystal Sound, Antarctica, is named in honor of Levy's 1957 work with SW Peterson determining the position of hydrogen atoms in an ice crystal using neutrons.^[8][9]