William A. Nierenberg; Longtime Director of Scripps Institution

William A. Nierenberg, an eminent scientist who for 21 years served as director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, died Sunday at his home in San Diego. He was 81 years old and had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

A man of boundless curiosity and whirling-dervish energy, Nierenberg was best known for his work in magnetic resonance and low-energy nuclear physics. At a time when his field ruled the scientific pantheon, he was for many years a professor of physics at UC Berkeley and at the university’s Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.

Nierenberg’s prodigious record in national and international service began with his work on the Manhattan Project that helped produce the atomic bomb during World War II. From 1960 to 1962 he was assistant secretary general of NATO. He also worked with the Navy, NASA, UNESCO, the National Academy of Sciences and the White House, where he advised every president since John F. Kennedy.

In the 1970s he was appointed chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere. He also served on the National Science Board and was five times a delegate to the Law of the Sea conferences.

He was an avid pilot and a passionate opera fan. He reigned over his rose garden with a vengeance, and grew rhododendrons outside his office at Scripps, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Fascinated by the intricacies of the desert, he loved to slip away to his cabin in Borrego Springs. He played the mandolin, collected Turkish rugs and recently took up Chinese cooking. His literary hero was Cyrano de Bergerac, who was an early physicist as well as a swordsman and writer.

Nierenberg spoke so fast--and in several languages--that it always seemed he was running out of time. His penchant for abruptly shifting topics made him seem impatient, which was sometimes true. Mostly, he was eager to try new ideas. Tall and intense, he was known also for the plastic pocket pen protector that went everywhere with him.

The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Nierenberg was born in New York City in 1919. One of the legacies of growing up so poor that he began earning his own way at age 14 was apparent when he took over at Scripps and immediately abolished the aquarium’s entry fee.

He called this gesture “a tangible gift to the people of Southern California,” and explained, “I got a big help from the free museums in New York. You can’t just be in a gimme mode. You’ve got to give something back.”

Nierenberg graduated from the City University of New York, studied at the University of Paris and earned his doctorate at Columbia University. He received a litany of awards from scientific organizations and universities around the world.

“He was an excellent scientist, a brilliant experimentalist in physics,” said Walter Munk, a professor of oceanography at Scripps. “He was very loyal; you could always count on him being thoughtful to his friends.”

Munk and others credit Nierenberg, who was Scripps’ longest-tenured director, with turning the country’s largest and oldest oceanographic facility into an international force. He shepherded Scripps’ Deep Sea Drilling Project, and also helped establish NORPAX, which began as the North Pacific Experiment to study the interaction between the upper waters of the North Pacific and the atmosphere.

Under Nierenberg, Scripps scientists explored some of the deepest parts of the world’s seas, discovered unusual life forms at deep-sea hot springs, warned of the growing dangers of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and contributed to a greater understanding of how the world’s climate is driven.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, the former Edith Myerson of San Diego; his children, Victoria Nierenberg Tschinkel of Tallahassee, Fla., and Nicholas C.E. Nierenberg of La Jolla, and three grandchildren.