John Prausnitz: key obituary facts
Is John Prausnitz dead? Yes. John Prausnitz died on November 5, 2026, at age 98.
Cause of death: John Prausnitz's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was John Prausnitz known for?
He was a professor of chemical engineering.
More about John Prausnitz
Born: 7 January 1928.
Place of birth: Berlin.
Gender: male.
Occupation: chemist.
Nationality: United States.
Education: Cornell University.
Employer: University of California, Berkeley.
Awards: National Medal of Science, Guggenheim Fellowship, E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry.
Also known as: John M. Prausnitz, John Michael Prausnitz.
Known for: Molecular thermodynamics, NRTL, UNIQUAC, UNIFAC.
John Prausnitz, an American chemical engineer known for molecular thermodynamics, died November 5, 2026, aged 98.
Born in Berlin on January 7, 1928, he studied at Cornell University and became a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he later held emeritus status. His research addressed the thermodynamics of phase equilibria and its application to industrial process design.
Prausnitz developed activity-coefficient models used in designing major chemical plants, including NRTL, UNIQUAC and UNIFAC. His work helped make molecular thermodynamics useful in addressing practical problems in chemical engineering. He was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. In 2003, he received the National Medal of Science for his contributions to molecular thermodynamics. His other honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship, the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry and the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry. He was also an author of The Properties of Gases and Liquids. Prausnitz’s family background connected his early life in Berlin with the upheavals of the period: his father and his mother’s stepfather were Jewish doctors. After the Nazi government revoked Jewish doctors’ licenses in 1933, the two men were able to continue working because they had served as front-line soldiers in World War I.