Kleppa, Ole, 1920-2007

Ole Kleppa was born in Oslo, Norway on February 4, 1920. He received his early education in Norway. In occupied Norway during World War II, Kleppa was a student government leader who took part in resistance activities and narrowly escaped the Gestapo while fleeing to Britain. In Britain, he served in the Norwegian Army as an officer of Industrial Intelligence and trained U.S. soldiers in cold weather environment skills. After the war he resumed his education, and in 1956 he received a Doctor of Technology degree from the Norwegian Technical University. Kleppa began his long-term association with the University of Chicago and The Institute for the Study of Metals (now the James Franck Institute) in 1947. He became an Assistant Professor in 1952, an Associate Professor in 1958, and a Professor in 1962. Kleppa's research resulted in more than three-hundred scientific publications, mostly in the field of high-temperature thermochemistry. He is known for developing the Kleppa calorimeter which allows for detailed measurements of heat released in chemical reactions.

In 1969, Kleppa was involved in the University of Chicago administration's response to student protests. Student protests against the dismissal of Professor Marlene Dixon from the Departments of Sociology and Human Development quickly expanded into protests against the University's faculty appointment policies, and allegations of racism within community development projects. Protests included a sit-in occupation of the Administration Building, demonstrations of support and condemnation of the sit-in, hunger strikes by students, assaults on professors, and destruction of university property. Kleppa opposed the student protests from the onset and was actively involved in the disciplinary process that brought them to an end.

Kleppa held several administrative positions throughout his academic career. He was Associate Director and Director of The James Franck Institute 1968¯1977, and Director of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Chicago, 1984¯1987. He served on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, and Journal of Phase Equilibria. Professor Kleppa won such prestigious awards as the Huffman Memorial Award in 1982, U.S. Scientist Humboldt Award, 1983¯1984, and the Hume Rothery Award in 1994. Kleppa was visiting Professor for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 1975 and a visiting professor the University of Paris, Orsay in 1977. He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society for Science and Letters, a member of the Norwegian Academy for Technological Sciences, and a Fellow of AAAS and of the American Society for Microbiology. Kleppa retired as a Professor Emeritus in 1990. He died in 2007.