Hellmut Fritzsche (20 February 1927 – June 17, 2018) was an American physicist. He came to the US on a one-year Smith-Mundt fellowship in 1950/51. After receiving his Diplom in physics from the University of Göttingen in 1952 he returned to the US. He earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1954 where in the same year he became Instructor and in 1955 Assistant Professor. In 1957 he moved to the University of Chicago, where in 1963 he became a full professor and in 1996 retired. During his career at the University of Chicago he was director of its Materials Research laboratory 1973–77 and chairman of its Physics department 1977–86. During his chairmanship he planned and oversaw the building of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center. For twenty five years Fritzsche served on the University o