Student Work – Arthur Rosenfeld and Lorenzo Servitje Sendra

Arthur Rosenfeld by Ksenia Khismatulina

 

Arthur Rosenfeld receiving a medal from President Obama Image from Wikipedia

Ksenia Khismatulina

Brilliant scientist, honored researcher, and global advocate for energy efficiency, Arthur Rosenfeld passed away on January 27, 2017 at the age of 90 at his home in Berkeley, California. The cause was complications from pneumonia.

Arthur Rosenfeld was born in Alabama on June 22, 1926. He spent his childhood years in Egypt, where his father was a consultant to the Egyptian sugarcane industry. While still in high school, Arthur Rosenfeld earned his bachelor degree in industrial physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He continued his studies under Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi at University of Chicago where he received his Ph.D. After that, Rosenfeld joined the physics faculty at the University of California at Berkeley. It was the oil embargo of 1973 that made the scientist famous worldwide. One night, before going home, he decided to turn off the lights in all 20 offices of his lab and started to calculate the energy savings. That is how his meticulous research and quest for energy conservation began. In 1975, Rosenfeld created the Energy Efficient Buildings Program. It is a study about impact of low-energy refrigerators and air conditioners and glass windows that trap heat on energy security. Doctor Rosenfeld came to a conclusion that more efficient appliances could cut energy consumption and save billions of dollars. His work received recognition from Governor of California Jerry Brown when energy efficient requirements for refrigerators and freezers went into effect in 1977. Ten years later, the federal government followed golden state example and started to implement its own requirements for appliances. Arthur Rosenfeld developed the DOE-2 series of computer programs for building energy analysis and design that has been the standard for building energy analysis for more than 25 years. He is considered a father of energy efficiency movement.

Arthur Rosenfeld’s scientific contributions and advocacy for energy preservation were very well acknowledged. He served as an advisor at the Department of Energy under President Bill Clinton. In 2006, he was awarded one of the most reputable science honors, the Enrico Fermi. In 2011, President Barack Obama expressed the country’s gratitude with national Medal of Technology and Innovation. In order to honor Arthur Rosenfeld’s achievements, a group of 54 scientists proposed a new unit of measurement that refer to annual electricity savings of three billion kilowatt-hours (equivalent to the amount of energy produced by coal plant each year). They suggested naming it the Rosenfeld.

Dr. Rosenfeld is survived by daughters Dr. Margaret Rosenfeld and Dr. Anne Hansen, two granddaughters and four grandsons. His wife of 53 years, Roselyn Bernheim Rosenfeld, died in 2009. As for the Arthur Rosenfeld’s estate information, nothing was found with the exception of his Berkeley home, an 80-year-old Spanish-style place that boasts double-glazed windows, high-efficiency appliances and energy-sipping lightbulbs

Works Cited

Harrison Smith, Arthur Rosenfeld, Physicist at Forefront of Energy-Efficiency Movement, Dies at 90, Wash Post (January 31, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/arthur-rosenfeld-physicist-at-forefront-of-energy-efficiency-movement-dies-at-90/2017/01/31/162705ec-e7c9-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?utm_term=.354c7cf3b967

Kate Galbraith, Arthur Rosenfeld, Zealous Champion of Energy Efficiency, Dies at 90, N.Y. Times (January 27, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/science/arthur-rosenfeld-dead-energy-efficiency.html

Marc Lifsher, You Can Thank Arthur Rosenfeld for Energy Savings, L.A. Times (January 11, 2010), http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/11/business/la-fi-rosenfeld11-2010jan11

Lorenzo Servitje Sendra by Demi Huang

Lorenzo Servitje Sendra Image from https://www.informabtl.com/10-frases-inspiradoras-lorenzo-servitje/

 

Demi Huang

Don Lorenzo Servitje Sendra passed away on Friday, February 3, 2017 at the age of 98 in his home in Mexico City. He is survived by his two sons, six daughters, 24 grandchildren, and 50 great-grandchildren. His wife, Carmen Montull, passed away in 2002.

Don Lorenzo Servitje Sendra, also known as Don Lorenzo, was born on November 20, 1918 in Mexico City, the son of Juan Servitje Torrallardona and Josefina Sendra. He studied accounting at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but is now known for being one of the founders of Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican bakery conglomerate that now includes Wonder Bread, Sara Lee, Entenmann’s, Thomas’ English Muffins, and more. The company started off as a small bakery and retail store called El Molino, opened by his father in 1928. When his father passed away suddenly in 1936, Mr. Servitje inherited the business and decided to leave his work as an accountant. It was then that he began working out how to import modern American industrial baking technology.

At the end of 1945, Servitje and his partners started the company. Initially, Grupo Bimbo had 34 employees and 10 trucks that solely delivered loaves of white bread in two sizes, rye bread, and toasted bread. Today, the company has 130,000 employees and 170 factories in 22 countries. They make 10,000 products, which are marketed under more than 100 different brands, and are distributed by more than 11,000 vehicles. In 2014, the company reported over $14 billion in sales. After buying Weston Foods, and having previously acquired the Mexican Rights to Wonder Bread, Grupo Bimbo became the biggest baking company in the United States in 2009. Only two years later, the company became the biggest baking company in the world after buying its competitors in Spain, Portugal, and Argentina.

Works Cited

Co-Founder of Mexican Baking Giant Grupo Bimbo Dead at 98, Latin American Herald Tribune (February 3, 2017), http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2430510&CategoryId=14091
Sam Roberts, Lorenzo Servitje, a Founder of the World’s Biggest Bakery, dies at 98, The New York Times (February 6, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/business/lorenzo-servitje-a-founder-of-the-worlds-biggest-bakery-dies-at-98.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fobituaries