Dr. Francis P. Bundy, one of the members of the team that first synthesised diamond, died on February 23, 2008 at the age of 97. Born September 1, 1910 in Columbus Ohio, he attended Lancaster High School, Ohio [1927], and graduated from Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio [1931] After earning his doctorate at The Ohio State University [1937], he taught for a few years at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He then joined the Harvard Underwater Sound Lab during World War II, where he worked on sonar devices.

After the war effort, he joined the General Electric Research Laboratory, Schenectady NY, January 1946, and specialised in various fields of physics, mechanics (high pressure apparatus design), optics (measurements of rocket flame temperatures using interferometry), radiation, heat transfer, (filled vacuum insulating panels) but spent most of his professional life in super-pressure physics, where he was one of the first members assigned to the GE team which discovered the process for synthesising diamonds.

His emphasis was on the science not the applications. He developed a superbelt capable of 150,000 atmospheres and worked out the carbon phase diagram where he was the first to make diamond without using a metal catalyst. In it he was also the first to be able to make diamond from liquid carbon. He worked on pressure calibration methods, particularly at high pressures and effect of pressure on thermocouples. He extended the phase diagrams of many materials with his ultra high-pressure belt.

He was a fellow of the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He published over one hundred scientific papers, had many patents and won many awards and received recognition for his various scientific and gliding accomplishments. Most notably, he was recognized in 1987 with the Bridgman Gold Medal of the International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology.

Francis Bundy was admired for his scientific prowess and unfailing generosity to all those he mentored. He will be long remembered with admiration and affection by his family, scientific colleagues, friends and students, and all people whose paths he influentially crossed during his long, rich, and creative life.