Schäfer was a quantum chemist in the University of Arkansas’ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and was the first researcher to use analytical derivatives in systematic geometry optimizations to augment electron diffraction results.

Schäfer was born in Dusseldorf, Germany to Ernst and Sybille Schäfer, well-known butchers in the area. Despite their encouragement to pursue the family business, he instead followed his love of science by obtaining his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Munich, Germany, his Ph.D. at Oslo University, Norway, and his Post Doctorate degree at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Schäfer moved his family to Fayetteville in 1968 where he began his 40-year career as a professor at the University of Arkansas. He enjoyed many accolades, including being honored as a distinguished professor, publishing multiple books, teaching chemistry, philosophy and quantum physics, and opening the minds of hundreds of young students to the world of science and its infinite potential.

He believed wholeheartedly in incorporating the principles of quantum physics as a way of making our lives and the entire world better.

“The universe is conscious,” he said. “The patterns of information in the background are for its use. You could say physics is the psychology of the universe and psychology is the physics of the mind. We can understand the external world because the forms in our mind and the structures outside come out of the same order. They are congruent. We are all part of the unity, all part of a wholeness.”