ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — George Cowan, a chemist whose influence touched everything from the Manhattan Project and the hunt for evidence of the Soviet Union’s first nuclear tests to the Santa Fe Institute and the iconic Santa Fe Opera, has died at 92, friends said.
Cowan died Friday at his home in Los Alamos.
Friends confirmed his death, saying it was the result of a fall at his home. He was planning to travel and continue working with the nonprofit science institute that he helped found in 1984.
Institute co-founder David Pines calls Cowan’s death “an enormous loss.”
Cowan worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 40 years. He started in 1949 as a scientist and went on to serve as a director of chemistry and as associate lab director of research.
He was also appointed to the White House Science Council during the Reagan administration.