Arthur H. Rosenfeld

Arthur Hinton Rosenfeld (June 22, 1926 – January 27, 2017) was a University of California, Berkeley physicist and California energy commissioner, dubbed the "Godfather of Energy Efficiency", for developing new standards which helped improve energy efficiency in California and subsequently worldwide. Starting in 1954 he served as a professor of physics at the UC Berkeley and a senior staff member at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 1994, he served in the Clinton administration as senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2000, he was appointed Commissioner of the California Energy Commission, serving until his retirement in 2010.

His work helped lead to such breakthroughs as low-energy electric lights, such as compact fluorescent lamps, low-energy refrigerators, and windows that trap heat. In his fight against global warming, he has saved Americans billions of dollars in electricity bills. Rosenfeld coauthored a book on nuclear physics with Fermi, who was noted for building the world's first nuclear reactor.

In 1954, after earning his Doctor of Philosophy in physics, and with a recommendation from Fermi, Rosenfeld accepted a position as a teaching physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez went on to win the Nobel Prize with research backed by his team of scientists that included Rosenfeld.

Energy efficiency leader

He developed DOE-2, a computer program for building energy analysis and design that was incorporated into the new code. The codes themselves became models for other states, copied by Florida and Massachusetts, among them. DOE-2 is used to calculate codes and guidelines for energy efficient new buildings by various countries, including China.

Other states and countries became aware that although homes in California were loaded with new energy-consuming appliances, such as computers, large-screen TVs, iPods, PlayStations, central air conditioners, hot tubs and swimming pools, their per person energy use had remained the same as it was 30 years earlier.

Energy savings and reduced pollution quote=Art Rosenfeld helped make California the world leader in energy efficiency. His pathbreaking ideas transformed our energy sector from one of massive waste to increasingly elegant efficiency. — —Jerry Brown, Governor of California An executive from the utilities contacted Rosenfeld's lab to demand they fire him. It was estimated that they alone would save Californian's $8 billion over the following decade.

In 1980 Rosenfeld helped form the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit organization aimed at promoting energy efficiency policies and technologies. In 2014, leading members of the organization paid tribute to his work, with many of its members crediting him for giving them inspiration during their careers. At that event, Rosenfeld said that his own inspiration for establishing the organization was his "fury" at president Jimmy Carter's plan to spend $88 billion on alternative fuel development, but almost nothing toward energy conservation. He realized that someone with his expertise was needed to re-focus attention to conserving energy, which he felt was the best and easiest way to reduce energy consumption.

Rosenfeld is the author or co-author of about 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers. From 1994 to 1999, Rosenfeld was a senior advisor for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the United States Department of Energy. Former U.S. secretary of energy, Steven Chu, explains that by Rosenfeld's calculation, having white roofs on all flat-roofed buildings and for pavements, would be the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world for 18 years. In 2005 California added cool roofs to its Title 24 building standards. The cause of his death was pneumonia. His wife of 53 years, Roselyn Bernheim "Roz" Rosenfeld, had died in 2009.

He is survived by two daughters, Dr. Margaret Rosenfeld at the University of Washington Children's Hospital in Seattle and Dr. Anne Hansen at Harvard Children's Hospital in Boston; His sons-in-law Professor Daniel S. Weld, University of Washington, and Professor Jonathan Hansen, Harvard. He had six grandchildren: Oliver, Julian and Nathalie Hansen & Adam, Galen and Leah Weld, ages 22 to 16 as of 2017.

Rosenfeld Effect. To explain how California's per capita electricity usage managed to stay flat for 40 years, while usage for the nation went 50 percent higher, the term "Rosenfeld effect" was created. The Rosenfeld: a unit of measure. (One Rosenfeld equals an energy saving of 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year, which represents the electrical output of one 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant.) Honorary degree, Durham University, 1983

Awards Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest, 1986 Carnot Award for Energy Efficiency, U.S. Department of Energy, 1993 Berkeley Citation, University of California, 2001 Enrico Fermi Award, 2006 Economist Innovator of the Year Award, 2008 National Association of Engineering (NAE) Membership, 2010 Global Energy Prize (Russia), 2011 National Medal of Technology (U.S.), 2011 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, 2016