Fritz Houtermans
Fritz Houtermans | |
---|---|
Born | 22 January 1903 |
Died | 1 March 1966 (aged 63) |
Occupation | |
Academic career | |
Fields | Physics, nuclear physics, geochemistry, astrochemistry |
Doctoral advisor | James Franck |
Friedrich Georg "Fritz" Houtermans (January 22, 1903 – March 1, 1966) was a Dutch-Austrian-German atomic and nuclear physicist and Communist born in Zoppot (now Sopot) near Danzig (now Gdańsk), West Prussia to a Dutch father, who was a wealthy banker. He was brought up in Vienna, where he was educated, and moved to Göttingen when he was 18 to study. It was in Göttingen where he obtained his Ph.D. under James Franck.[1]
Education
Houtermans began his studies at the
While at Göttingen, Houtermans met
Charlotte Riefenstahl, who received her doctorate in physics at the University of Göttingen in 1927, the same year as Houtermans and Robert Oppenheimer, was courted by both men.[8][a] In 1930, she left her teaching position at Vassar College and went back to Germany. During a physics conference at the Black Sea resort of Batumi, Riefenstahl and Houtermans were married in August 1930, in Tbilisi, with Wolfgang Pauli and Rudolf Peierls as witnesses to the ceremony.[9][10][11][12][b]
Career
From 1932 to 1933, Houtermans taught at the Technical University of Berlin and was an assistant to Hertz. While there, he met
Houtermans was a
While imprisoned in the
At the Forschunsinstitut Manfred von Ardenne, Houtermans showed that
During Houtermans's employment at the
From 1952, Houtermans took a position as ordinarius professor of physics at the
Personal
Houtermans was married four times.[30] Charlotte was his first and third wife in four marriages. They had two children, a daughter Giovanna (born in Berlin, 1932) and a son Jan (born in Kharkov, 1935), and they were divorced the first time in 1943, due to a new law in Germany and enforced wartime separation.[12][31] In February 1944, Houtermans married Ilse Bartz, a chemical engineer; they worked together during the war and published a paper.[32] Houtermans and Ilse had three children, Pieter, Elsa, and Cornelia.[33] In August 1953, again with Pauli standing as a witness, Charlotte and Houtermans were again married, but they divorced again in only a few months. In 1955, Houtermans married Lore Müller, sister of his stepbrother, Hans. She brought her four-year-old daughter to the marriage, and she and Houtermans had a son, Hendrik, born in 1956.[8][34]
Houtermans died of lung cancer on 1 March 1966.[35]
Internal report
Houtermans authored a report which was published in
- Fritz Houtermans Zur Frage der Auslösung von Kern-Kettenreaktionen. G-94.[38]
Works (selection)
- Atkinson, R. and Houtermans, F.G. "Aufbaumöglichkeit in Sternen" (Z. für Physik 54, 656-665, 1929)
- Houtermans, F.G. "Über ein neues Verfahren zur Durchführung chemischer Altersbestimmungen nach der Blei-Methode" (Springer, 1951)
- Houtermans, Fritz "Publikationen von Friedrich Georg Houtermans aus den Jahren 1926-1950" (Zusammengestellt im Physikalischen Institut Universität Bern, 1955)
- Geiss, J. and E. D. Goldberg and F. G. Houtermans "Earth Science and Meteoritics- dedicated to F. G. Houtermans on his sixtieth birthday F.G. Houtermans" (North Holland, 1963)
For a partial list of works by Houtermans, see the Wolfram biography.
See also
Notes
References
- ^ From: http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Houtermans.html
- ^ As cited in Charlotte Riefenstahl Archived 2012-07-26 at the Wayback Machine – Nernst Memorial Website: Houtermans, Fritz. Thesis title: Über die Bandenfluoreszenz und die lichtelektrische Ionisierung des Quecksilberdampfes. Georg-August University of Göttingen, 1927, under James Franck.
- ^ a b c d Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Houtermans.
- ^ a b c d Houtermans Biography – Wolfram
- ^ Jungk, 1958, 48.
- ^ Atkinson, R. and Houtermans, F. Aufbaumöglichkeit in Sternen, Z. für Physik 54 656-665 (1929).
- ^ Martin Harwit The Growth of Astrophysical Understanding, Physics Today Volume 58 Number 11 38 (2003) Physics Today Archived 2005-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Hentschel, Ann M., 2005, 127.
- ^ Landrock, 2003, 190.
- ^ Charlotte Riefenstahl Archived 2012-07-26 at the Wayback Machine - Nernst Memorial Website
- ^ a b Hentschel, Ann M., 2005, 124.
- ^ a b Khriplovich, 1992, 32.
- ^ Bird, 2005, 63 and 69.
- ^ Powers, 1993, 85.
- ^ Frisch, 1980, 71.
- ^ Hentschel, Ann M., 2005, 123 (second footnote).
- ^ a b c Landrock, 2003, 191.
- ^ The Accused – Alexander Weissberg
- ^ Khriplovich, 1992, 33.
- ^ sachen.de Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine - Zur Ehrung von Manfred von Ardenne.
- ^ Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Ardenne.
- ^ Beck, F. and Godin, W. "Russian Purge and the Extraction of Confession" (Hurst and Blackett, 1951).
- ^ Khriplovich, 1992, 35.
- ^ Wigner, 1992, 241.
- ^ Bernstein, 2001, 364.
- ^ Powers, 1993, 413-414.
- ^ Khriplovich, 1992, 36.
- ^ Landrock, 2003, 197.
- ^ Khriplovich relates the tobacco story also, but places it as having taken place at the Forschunsinstitut Manfred von Ardenne; see Khriplovich, 1992, 36. The timeline and places of Houtermans's employment given by Powers agrees with that of Landrock; see Landrock, 2003, 191.
- ^ Fritz Houtermans Archived 2005-05-03 at the Wayback Machine Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ Landrock, 2003, 196.
- ^ Houtermans, F. and Bartz, I. Kernphotoeffekt im Beryllium. Phys. Z. 44 167-176 (1943).
- ^ Hentschel, Ann M., 2005, 126.
- ^ Landrock, 2003, 196-198.
- ^ Khriplovich, 1992, 37.
- ^ Hentschel and Hentschel, 1996, Appendix E; see the entry for Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte.
- ^ Walker, 1993, 268.
- ^ Walker, 1993, 271.
Sources
- Beck, F. and Godin, W. Russian Purge and The Extraction of Confession (Hurst and Blackett, 1951). Houtermans and Konstantine F. Shteppa, the authors of this book, took the pseudonyms Beck and Godin to protect their many friends and colleagues back in the USSR.
- Amaldi, E. “The Adventurous Life of Friedrich Georg Houtermans, Physicist (1903-1966)”, S. Braccini, A. Ereditato, P. Scampoli Eds. (SpringerBriefs in Physics, 2010)
Further reading
- ISBN 0-387-95089-3
- Buttlar, H. von, "Leonium und andere Anekdoten um den Physikprofessor Dr. F. G. Houtermans" (Bochum, 1982)
- Bird, Kai and Martin J. Sherwin, American Promethius: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Vintage, 2005)
- Frenkel, Viktor, Professor Houtermans, Works, Life, Fate (biography in Russian), (Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1997)
- Frisch, Otto Robert, What Little I Remember (Cambridge, 1980)
- ISBN 0-670-50376-2
- Hentschel, Ann M. "The Physical Tourist: Peripatetic Highlights in Bern", Physics in Perspective, Volume 7, Number 1, 107-129 (2005). The author is cited as being at the Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, University of Bern, Uni-Tobler, Länggassstrasse 49a, CH-3012 Bern 9, Switzerland.
- ISBN 0-8176-5312-0
- Houtermans, F. "Determination of the Age of the Earth from the Isotopic Composition of Meteoritic Lead", Nuovo Cimento, 10 1623-1633 (1953)
- Brighter Than a Thousand Suns(Harcourt, Brace, 1958)
- Khriplovich, Iosif B. "The Eventful Life of Fritz Houtermans", Physics Today, Volume 45, Issue 7, 29 – 37 (1992). The author is cited as being at the Gersh Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia, and professor at the Novosibirsk University.
- Landrock, Konrad, "Friedrich Georg Houtermans (1903–1966) – Ein bedeutender Physiker des 20. Jahrhunderts", Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau, Volume 56, Number 4, 187 – 199 (2003)
- Marvin, U.B. "Oral histories in meteoritics and planetary sciences: VIII Friedrich Begemann", Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 37, B69-B77 (2002)
- Patterson, C. "Age of meteorites and the Earth", Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 10 230-237 (1956)
- ISBN 0-394-51411-4
- ISBN 0-671-44133-7
- Walker, Mark, German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939–1949 (Cambridge, 1993) ISBN 0-521-43804-7
- ISBN 0-306-44326-0
External links
- Annotated Bibliography for Fritz Hourtermans from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Biography with a list of published works - Wolfram
- Fritz Houtermans - Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- Konrad Landrock - Friedrich Georg Houtermans (1903–1966) – Ein bedeutender Physiker des 20. Jahrhunderts