Herbert A. Hauptman, Ph.D. was born in New York City on February 14, 1917, the oldest child of Israel Hauptman - a printer - and Leah Rosenfeld who was a sales clerk in the ladies' hat department of a prominent New York City department store. He has two brothers, Manuel and Robert.

He fondly recalls the passionate stirrings and an innate understanding and appreciation of science and mathematics which arose in him at a very early age. It is that passion which has fueled his successful career and one which still drives him today.

Hauptman received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the City College of New York in 1937 and a master's degree in mathematics from Columbia University in 1939.

On a blind double date in the late fall of 1940, Hauptman found that while his date was nice enough, he had really taken a fancy to his friend’s date. Much like the drive which inspires his professional success, Hauptman quickly acted on his emotions and within a matter of weeks, he married his young bride, Edith Citrynell. They have two daughters, Barbara who was born in 1947 and Carol who joined the family in 1950. Barbara resides in Buffalo, and Carol resides in Bethesda, Maryland. Sixty-seven years later, Mrs. Hauptman is still his partner and best friend.

Unfortunately, shortly after they were married, Dr. Hauptman joined the legions of other young American men who were sent to serve in World War II. A Navy ensign, Hauptman was stationed in the Southwest Pacific where he was trained as a weather forecaster. He was made a permanent “officer of the day” and was responsible for responding to a variety of crises. While he only had one day of firefighting training, he also served as a Fire Marshall in the Phillipines – an assignment which twice nearly cost him his life. His time in the war was marred with close calls and the constant presence of death and destruction. The experience remains vivid to him to this day and led him in future years to actively protest against other American involvement in military actions including the Vietnam War. He concluded his war years by teaching basic electronics and radar to officers in the Army Airforce, and soon thereafter began his career as a researcher at the Naval Research Lab where he worked from 1947 through 1970. During that time, he received his Ph.D from the University of Maryland in 1955. 

His first assignment at the Naval Lab was a project that he worked on with Jerome Karle. Karle, a physical chemist, and Hauptman, a mathematician, were the right combination to work on the phase problem in crystallography. Their work was greeted with skepticism by crystallographers who were convinced that the phases could not be retrieved from the diffraction intensities. Nevertheless, the work that he and Karle did in those early days would one day win them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985 for their development of a series of mathematical equations which relied heavily on probability theory and solved the phase problem in x-ray crystallography.

Dr. Hauptman has traveled all over the world and has received dozens of honorary degrees from colleges and universities in countries as far away as Poland, Israel and Italy.

At 90 years old, Dr. Hauptman stills swims several times a week and works at Hauptman Woodward everyday on his own new research projects, as well as in the role of mentor and teacher to younger scientists. 

“As long as I’m healthy, I just don’t see myself not working,” Dr. Hauptman said.