Russell M.
Pitzer, an American chemist and educator, died on May 25, 2026, at the age of 88. Born Russell Mosher Pitzer on May 10, 1938, in Berkeley, California, he attended public schools there and in the Washington, D.C., area before earning a B.S.
in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1959. He later received an A.M. in physics and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University in 1963. At Harvard, he worked with William N. Lipscomb Jr. and with John C. Slater’s research group at M.I.T. on computer programs designed to use Slater orbitals in self-consistent field molecular orbital calculations.
Russell M. Pitzer, 88, American chemist.