Robert Holzer; Geophysicist, UCLA Dean

Robert E. Holzer, a physicist, geophysicist and educator who helped pioneer the tracking of thunderstorms, has died. He was 87.

Holzer, a former UCLA professor, died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center.

He began studying electrical charges in lightning in the late 1930s and within a decade determined that storms could be tracked.

“Without leaving a shack in the remote Arctic waste,” he said in 1948, “a scientist may be able to keep track of day-to-day thunderstorm activity over an entire continent.”

Born Nov. 21, 1906, in Portland, Ore., Holzer earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed College and a doctorate in physics from UC Berkeley. He was a National Research Fellow at the University of Chicago, and taught at Fenn College, UC Berkeley and the University of New Mexico.

In 1946, Holzer moved to Southern California to head the physics department at Pomona College. A year later he was one of the first to join UCLA’s new Institute of Geophysics.

Holzer taught geophysics, space physics and meteorology at UCLA until his retirement in 1974. Holzer served as dean of physical sciences at the university and was elected chairman of the statewide UC Academic Senate.

As a professor emeritus, he continued his research until his death. Holzer also helped lead the scientific community into space research.

Holzer is survived by his wife, Wilma; a daughter, Roberta Ankenbauer; two sons, William and Thomas Holzer, and three grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to a charity of the donor’s choice.