Myriam Sarachik, a scientist whose groundbreaking experiments illuminated subtle but fundamental physics in the electronic and magnetic behavior of materials, died Oct. 7 in Manhattan. She was 88.

In the 1980s, she began performing her leading-edge work on superconductivity and molecules that acted like magnets. Last year, the American Physical Society awarded her the Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research for “fundamental contributions to the physics of electronic transport in solids and molecular magnetism.” She later taught at City College of New York until her retirement in 2018.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1933, her family fled the Nazi threat in 1940. Their flight included false papers, bribes, running through open fields, being seized and placed in a prison camp in German-occupied France, and then an escape to Vichy, France. They made their way to Cuba, then New York City, where Myriam was among the first girls to attend the Bronx High School of Science. She graduated from Barnard College and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in physics from Columbia University.