Wolfgang Panofsky, 88; Physicist, Fought For Disarmament

Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky was born in Berlin on April 24, 1919, the son of world-renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky. With the rise of the Nazis, Dr. Panofsky and his brother, Hans, "were given a lot of trouble in school," Carol Panofsky said. Their father was "seeing the handwriting on the wall," she said. In the early 1930s, the family came to America.

Dr. Panofsky and his brother, who were close in age, enrolled at Princeton University. As seniors in 1938, they were voted the most brilliant in their class. Hans compiled a perfect record; Wolfgang fell slightly short. As a result, scholars have amused themselves by calling him "the dumb Panofsky."

In part, Carol Panofsky said, circumstance led the brothers to science. On their arrival in America, "their English was marginal," so science, with similarities between many English and foreign terms, was "much more accessible."

She also said the brothers "were always interested in mechanical things." The Erector Set "was one of their favorite childhood toys." Hans, an astronomer and meteorologist, died in 1988.

Wolfgang Panofsky obtained a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology and worked during World War II on the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.

After retiring as chief of the accelerator center, Dr. Panofsky, who had been a science adviser to presidents, was chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on International Security and Arms Control from 1985 to 1993.

His wife, Adele, is the daughter of one of his Cal Tech professors. None of their children, Richard, Margaret, Edward, Carol or Steven, followed Dr. Panofsky into physics. But at least one grandchild is a physics major at Harvard University.