George Jura, professor emeritus of chemistry, died Jan. 25.

Jura was born in New York City in 1911 and was raised in Chicago.

He received his BS in 1939 from the Illinois Institute of Technology and his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1942.

After spending four years on the staff in Chicago, he joined the Berkeley faculty in 1946 and became emeritus in 1979.

Jura's first research was in surface chemistry, after doing his thesis work with Harkins in this field.

He later worked both in high pressure physical chemistry, measuring heat capacities and conductivities of metals near 100,000 atmospheres on the properties of small particles.

He directed the research of about 25 PhD students and several postdoctoral students.

Jura and his wife, Rose, loved the desert and spent several periods in Tucson. They collected desert plants and Kachina dolls and had an extensive collection of each in their Kensington home.

Eleven years ago they moved to San Diego.