Andrew E Lange

Andrew Lange, an astrophysicist whose balloon-borne measurements of light left over from the Big Bang played a key role in elucidating the shape and nature of the universe, was found dead on Jan. 22 2010 in Los Angeles. He was 52. Andrew E. Lange was born in Urbana, Ill., on July 23, 1957, the oldest son of Joan Lange, a school librarian, and Alfred Lange, an architect, and grew up in Easton, Conn. He attended Princeton University and then the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in 1987 and was promptly hired as a professor. While he was at Berkeley as a Packard fellow, Dr. Lange met another Packard fellow, Frances Arnold, a chemical engineer, who had attended Princeton and Berkeley when he did, but whom he had never met before then. The pair held a wedding ceremony for family and friends in 1994, but never made it official with the State of California, Dr. Arnold said. Dr. Arnold survives him, along with three children: James Bailey, her son from a previous relationship, whom Dr. Lange raised as his own; William A. Lange; and Joseph I. Lange. He is also survived by his parents and a sister, Karen Lange, of Washington, and a brother, Adam Lange, of St. Louis.