Gottfried Münzenberg

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Gottfried Münzenberg
Born(1940-03-17)17 March 1940
Died2 January 2024(2024-01-02) (aged 83)
EducationUniversity of Giessen
University of Innsbruck
Alma materGSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research
University of Mainz
Occupationphysicist
Known forDiscovery of superheavy elements
AwardsLise Meitner Prize (2000)
Otto Hahn Prize (1996)

Gottfried Münzenberg (17 March 1940 – 2 January 2024) was a German physicist.

Life and career

Gottfried Münzenberg was born on 17 March 1940, into a family of Protestant ministers (father Pastor Heinz and mother Helene Münzenberg). All his life he was deeply concerned about the philosophical and theological implications of physics. He studied physics at

GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, which was headed by Peter Armbruster. He played a leading role in the construction of SHIP, the 'Separator of Heavy Ion Reaction Products'. He was the driving force in the discovery of the cold heavy ion fusion and the discovery of the elements bohrium (Z = 107), hassium (Z = 108), meitnerium (Z = 109), darmstadtium (Z = 110), roentgenium (Z = 111), and copernicium (Z = 112). In 1984, he became head of the new GSI project, the fragment separator, a project which opened new research topics, such as interactions of relativistic heavy ions with matter, production and separation of exotic nuclear beams and structure of exotic nuclei. He directed the Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Chemistry department of the GSI and was professor of physics at the University of Mainz
until he retired in March 2005.

Among the rewards he received should be mentioned the Röntgen-Prize of the University of Giessen in 1983 and (together with Sigurd Hofmann) the Otto Hahn Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1996.

Münzenberg died in Greifswald on 2 January 2024, at the age of 83.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Gottfried Münzenberg". New Physics Home Page. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Mitentdecker des Elements Darmstadtium gestorben". Echo. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 23 January 2024.

Sources