Henri A. Levy (September 12, 1913 – March 25, 2003) was an American physicist and crystallographer who made contributions in the field of neutron scattering by crystalline materials.[1]
Levy was born in Oxnard, California and gained both his bachelor's degree and PhD at Caltech, in 1935 and 1938 respectively. His PhD was supervised by Linus Pauling. [1]
Following a postdoctoral position with Pauling, Levy moved to Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) where he spent the rest of his career.[1] He built on the work of Ernest O. Wollan and Clifford G. Shull in determining the structure of crystalline solids such as Xenon tetrafluoride,[2] sucrose[3] and glucose[4] using neutron diffraction. His work particularly focused on determining the positions of hydrogen atoms in crystals, something that neutron diffraction can do with higher precision than X-ray diffraction. He pioneered automated methodology for neutron diffraction studies,[5] along with several computer programs for analysis of crystallographic data.[6] He was president of the American Crystallographic Association in 1965.[1] In his later life, Levy worked on electron tomography of large biological complexes, particularly those transcribing DNA.[7]
Levy Island, in Crystal Sound, Antarctica, is named in honor of Levy's 1957 work with SW Peterson determining the position of hydrogen atoms in an ice crystal using neutrons.[8][9]