Fritz Laves

Fritz Henning Emil Paul Berndt Laves

Education and career Laves was born in Hanover, the son of a judge and the great-grandson of architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves. He grew up in Göttingen, where his interests included piano music as well as collecting rocks and minerals.

Laves was the editor of the journal Zeitschrift für Kristallographie between 1955 and 1978, which honoured him with a special issue in May 2006 commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The issue was devoted to the crystal chemistry of intermetallic compounds and included two articles on Laves' contributions to crystallography.

Personal life Laves was married to architect Melitta Druckenmüller (1907 – 1990), who assisted him with many of the illustrations in his publications.

Awards and honors Laves was awarded the Roebling Medal, the highest honor of the Mineralogical Society of America, in 1969. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and a corresponding member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He was also the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bochum.