Edward Alan Knapp

{{short description|American physicist (1932–2009)}}

{{Other people|Edward Knapp}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Edward Alan Knapp

| image = Edward Alan Knapp.jpg

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| order1 = 7th

| title1 = Director of the National Science Foundation

| term_start1 = 1982

| term_end1 = 1984

| president1 = Ronald Reagan

| predecessor1 = John Brooks Slaughter

| successor1 = Erich Bloch

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1932|03|07}}

| birth_place = Salem, Oregon, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|2009|08|17|1932|03|07}}

| death_place = Santa Fe, New Mexico, US

| residence = Santa Fe, New Mexico

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| occupation = physicist

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| nationality = American

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{{Infobox scientist | embed=yes

| fields = Physics

| workplaces = Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

| education =

| alma_mater = Pomona College
University of California, Berkeley

| thesis_title = Angular distribution of photo-pions from hydrogen

| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/301886512/

| thesis_year = 1958

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Edward Alan Knapp (March 7, 1932 – August 17, 2009){{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=42724 |title=Nomination of Edward A. Knapp To Be an Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation |accessdate=2009-04-14 |date=July 12, 1982 }} was an American physicist and was director of the National Science Foundation from 1982 to 1984.

Knapp graduated with BA from Pomona College in 1954, and with a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958.{{cite thesis |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/301886512/ |title=Angular distribution of photo-pions from hydrogen |date=1959 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |type=Ph.D. |last=Knapp |first=Edward Alan |id={{ProQuest|301886512}}|url-access=subscription |oclc=21754943}} He then moved to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he became division leader of the accelerator technology division.

In 1978, he was a guest scientist in the USA–USSR Exchange Program in Fundamental Properties of Matter. He also was a guest scientist in the US–Japanese Cooperative Cancer Research Program (NCI) in 1979.

On July 12, 1982, he was nominated by Ronald Reagan to succeed William Klemperer as assistant director for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation. In November 1982, he became director of the NSF, succeeding John Brooks Slaughter. In August 1984, he gave up the position to Erich Bloch and returned to scientific research.{{cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/knapp_bio.jsp |title=Edward A. Knapp (NSF biography) |accessdate=2009-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606081358/http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/knapp_bio.jsp |archive-date=2011-06-06 |url-status=dead }}

Knapp died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on August 17, 2009, after battling pancreatic cancer.{{cite journal |title=Edward Alan Knapp |journal=Physics Today |volume=63 |issue=2 |page=57 |year=2010 |doi=10.1063/1.3326995|bibcode=2010PhT....63b..57S |last1 = Simmons|first1 = L. M.}}