Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Otto Schnepp, who fled the Nazis as a child, became a U.S. diplomat to China and helped build USC Dornsife\u2019s East Asian Studies Center. Photos courtesy of Debbie Zelnik.<\/p>\n
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In Memoriam: Otto Schnepp<\/p>\n
USC emeritus professor lived on the front lines of pivotal 20th-century events and is remembered for his leadership skill, dedication to students and research excellence. [5 \u00bd min read]<\/p>\n
ByRhonda Hillbery<\/p>\n
January 24, 2019<\/p>\n
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A few individuals seem to pack two or three lifetimes worth of experience into one. Otto Schnepp was one of those people.
\nThe longtime USC Dornsife professor of chemistry and innovator in the field of molecular spectroscopy was also the nation\u2019s first science and technology attach\u00e9 to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, director of the USC East Asian Studies Center and a five-language polylinguist.
\nThe self-described citizen of the world died Jan. 2 in Walnut Creek, Calif. He was 93.
\nFlight from Nazi Europe to China
\nSchnepp was born in Vienna in 1925. Fleeing Nazi persecution, his family headed to Shanghai in 1939, joining thousands of other Jewish refugees and longtime residents. A 1997 Los Angeles Times article that described how Jews escaped the Holocaust by moving to China for the duration of World War II featured Schnepp.
\nAlong with other refugees, Schnepp\u2019s family scratched out a living, moving between the city\u2019s International Settlement and French Quarter as circumstances dictated. They experienced hardship, but perhaps not as much as some; Otto\u2019s father, a doctor, continued practicing medicine.
\n\u201cIt was kind of a hand-to-mouth life,\u201d Schnepp said in the article. \u201cSometimes you could earn something, sometimes it was harder.\u201d It became a test of endurance. \u201cBasically, we lived for the end of the war. That was my attitude.\u201d
\nOnce the war ended, Schnepp remained in Shanghai, earning a degree in chemistry in 1947. Remarkably, he was \u201cvirtually the only non-Chinese student\u201d attending St. John\u2019s University, an American Episcopalian University, said Debbie Zelnik, Schnepp\u2019s daughter. Her father\u2019s wartime experiences in Shanghai, fluency in Chinese and growing familiarity with the country\u2019s culture would play large roles in his future.<\/p>\n
From right, Otto Schnepp in 1981 with first lady Rosalynn Carter, President Jimmy Carter and\u00a0Judith Stransky, Schnepp\u2019s spouse at the time.<\/p>\n
Schnepp earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1951. USC Dornsife Emeritus Professor of Chemistry David Dows was a Berkeley undergraduate at the time.
\n\u201c[Schnepp] became a mentor to me and helped me find out what research was all about,\u201d Dows said.
\nWith degree in hand, Otto headed to the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., and then emigrated to Israel.\u00a0
\nIn the aftermath of his wartime experience, Schnepp felt a strong conviction to take part in Israel\u2019s historic, post-war emergence as a nation. \u201cI was very greatly influenced by the Holocaust and what it almost did to me as well as family and many people I knew,\u201d he explained in a 2000 interview for the USC Living History Project by the USC Emeriti Center. He joined the faculty of the Israel Institute of Technology in 1952 and lived in Haifa for 13 years.
\nOpportunity beckons at USC
\nOver the years, Schnepp would reconnect several times with Dows, then a professor in USC\u2019s Department of Chemistry, at scientific conferences. At one meeting, Dows described the USC department\u2019s efforts to grow. \u201cIt turned out [Schnepp] was thinking of returning to the U.S.,\u201d said Dows, then department chair.
\nUSC hired Schnepp as a professor of chemistry in 1965.
\nAs a researcher, he is remembered for contributions in the field of optical molecular spectroscopy, the study of light\u2019s interaction with matter.
\nSchnepp\u2019s research focused on the structure and excited states of molecular solids. His research group invented an instrument that could make measurements in a previously inaccessible \u201cvacuum ultraviolet\u201d spectral region.
\nSchnepp enjoyed a satisfying mix of research and teaching at the university and earned USC awards that included Outstanding Professor and the Associates Award for Creative Scholarship and Research in 1979.
\n\u201cIt is often said that research is a series of ups and downs, manic times and depressive times,\u201d he said in his USC Living History interview. \u201cIt is nice to be at an academic institution because when the lows \u2014 the disappointments \u2014 come, there is always something solid in the background.\u201d He considered that solid foundation to be teaching.
\nDuring a sabbatical in Israel in 1968, Schnepp collaborated with a Ph.D. student named Arieh Warshel. They were trying to calculate the vibrations of molecular crystal and analyze corresponding forces. Warshel was already hard at work on the quantum computing approach that would ultimately make him famous.
\n\u201cAlthough Otto did not believe that my Cartesian computer program could easily perform such a traditionally challenging task, he had the inherent wisdom to let me go forward,\u201d Warshel recalls. A few years later Schnepp helped recruit Warshel to join USC, where Warshel, now Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at USC Dornsife, would later win the Nobel Prize in chemistry.<\/p>\n
Otto Schnepp, left, served as a counselor for science and technology at the U.S. embassy in Beijing from 1980 to 1982.<\/p>\n
Warshel said he fondly remembers the kindness Schnepp showed him and his family upon their arrival to Los Angeles. The USC colleagues became close friends and later got in the habit of meeting for conversation in Hebrew over lunch or coffee.
\n\u201cWe talked about politics, the human condition and science,\u201d as well as the origin of certain Hebrew words. \u201cI will clearly miss Otto Schnepp,\u201d Warshel said.\u00a0
\nOur man in Beijing
\nTaking a leave from USC, Schnepp returned to China in 1980 to serve as science attach\u00e9 to the U.S. Embassy. He provided guidance in promoting technology transfer between the two nations in science, technology, agriculture and medicine.
\nHaving graduated from a Chinese university, he was fluent in the language and understood the people and their culture.
\n\u201cWhenever Otto mentioned his graduation from St John\u2019s University to the Chinese, it opened doors to him among the Chinese cadres, universities and institutions,\u201d Zelnik said. \u201cThey welcomed him with open arms and opened up to him almost as if he were one of them.\u201d
\nShe added that her father was extremely proud when he was promoted to science counselor a year later, the highest rank below ambassador. He also received a Superior Honor Award for his service from the U.S. Department of State in 1982.
\nDirector of East Asian studies
\nSchnepp subsequently returned to USC as a professor and served as chair of the chemistry department before transitioning to emeritus status. He maintained an active presence at USC. Starting in 1994, he served six years as director of USC Dornsife\u2019s East Asian Studies Center. The center credits him for playing a vital role in the development of the center by encouraging and supporting many academic activities related to Asia during his directorship.
\nOnce asked what motivated him to make one of his many global moves, Schnepp said this: \u201cI was looking forward to a different experience, a different adventure, if you like. Life is in my view a series of adventures.\u201d By that measure, Otto Schnepp had his share, and then some.
\nSchnepp was predeceased by his wife, Eileen. He is survived by daughters Debbie Zelnik and Tamar Schnepp and by five grandchildren.<\/p>\n
The post In Memoriam: Otto Schnepp appeared first on News and Events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USC emeritus professor lived on the front lines of pivotal 20th-century events and is remembered for his leadership skill, dedication to students and research excellence. [5 \u00bd min read]
\nThe post In Memoriam: Otto Schnepp appeared first on News and Events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":10456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[77,168,48,169,170],"class_list":["post-10454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chemistry","tag-arieh-warshel","tag-david-dows","tag-nobel-prize","tag-usc-east-asian-studies-center","tag-usc-emeriti-center"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n