Famous German Scientists

By: Korin

Science is Amazing!

Just think; Everything around you is science.

Science is happening to you RIGHT NOW and you can’t even feel it.

Makes you wonder what else science is up to…

These men asked the same question and harvested some mighty

important results.

Most of what they found may not effect your daily life; however, their

discoveries have added useful pieces to the puzzle that is life and reality

as we know it.

Here are only a handful of the many great chemists and

physicists that Germany has given us.

Although you may vaguely learning some of this stuff in high

school, remember; their discoveries were groundbreaking

and unthinkable at the time.

Otto HahnThe “Father of Nuclear Chemistry”

• Born 8th March, 1879 in Frankfurt Am Main, Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, German Empire

• Died 28th July, 1968 in Göttingen, West Germany

Otto Hahn“The Father of Nuclear Chemistry”

• One of the most significant chemists of all time.

• Pioneered in the fields of Radioactivity, Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry.

• Helped discover radioactive elements (1905-1921)

• Discovered Nuclear Fission in 1938– For this, he was awarded the Nobel

Prize in Chemistry in 1944

Otto Hahn“The Father of Nuclear Chemistry”

• Nuclear Fission is used in nuclear reactors today (obviously).

• He was a strong opponent of Jewish persecution by the Nazi Party and after WWII passionately campaigned against the use of nuclear energy as a weapon.

• Due to his scholarly excellence and personal integrity, he became one of the most influential and revered citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Nuclear Fission

Niels Henrik David BohrOne of my role models!

• Born: 7th Okt. 1885– Copenhagen,

Denmark

• Died: 18th Nov. 1962– Copenhagen,

Denmark

Niels Bohr• Won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his

foundational contributions to the understanding of the atomic structure and quantum theory.

• Developed the Bohr Model of the atom.• Predicted the existence of Hafnium [72].

– Named after the Latin name for Copenhagen where it was discovered.

• Bohrium [107] was later named after him.• He made countless other discoveries but

they’re too long to list.

Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom

Energy levels of electrons are discrete. Electrons revolve (in stable orbits) around the center of a nucleus, but can jump from one orbit (energy

level) or another.

Karl Ferdinand Braun

• Born: 6th Jun. 1850– Fulda,

Electorate of Hessen, Germany

• Died: 20th Apr. 1918– Brooklyn, NY

Karl Ferdinand Braun• Won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his

contributions to the development of radio and television technology.

• Built the first Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) in 1897 and cathode ray tube oscilloscope.– Still called a “Braun Tube” in German

countries• Invented a crystal diode rectifier (cat’s

whisker diode) in 1898.– Essentially made radio signals consume less

bandwidth and allowed them to reach a much longer distance

• Created the phased array antenna in 1905, which then lead to the development of radar, smart antennas and MIMO.

Cathode-Ray Tube

Werner Karl Heisenberg• Born: 5th Dez.

1901– Würzburg,

Bavaria, German Empire

• Died: 1st Feb. 1976– Munich, Bavaria,

West Germany

Werner Heisenberg• He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

in 1932 for “the creation of quantum mechanics”.

• He’s best known for his Uncertainty Principle, which he published in 1927, for which he built his philosophy.

• Also made great contributions to the theories of ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, subatomic particles and the atomic nucleus.

• He was instrumental in planning the first nuclear reactor at Karlsruhe as well as a research reactor in Munich in 1957.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

• Born: 27 Mar. 1845– Lennep, Rhine

Province, Germany

• Died: 10th Feb. 1923– Munich, Germany

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

• Won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his production and then discovery of Röntgen rays, or as we know them, X-Rays.– He made this groundbreaking discovery

on 8th Nov. 1895.

• In 2004, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named element 111, Roentgenium, after him.

Röentgen’s First X-Ray Images

Walther Nernst

• Born: 25th Jun. 1864– Briesen, West

Prussia

• Died: 18th Nov. 1941– Zibelle, Lusatia,

Germany

Walther Nernst• Won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in

1920 for his theories behind the calculation of chemical affinity as embodied in the Third Law of Thermodynamics.

• He established the modern field of Physical Chemistry and contributed of Electrochemistry, Thermodynamics, Solid State Chemistry and Photochemistry.

• He developed the Nernst Equation.

Nernst’s Chemical Affinity

“Chemical Affinity is the electronic property by which dissimilar

chemical species (atoms/molecules/ions subjected

to a chemical process or to a measurement) are capable of

forming chemical compounds.”

Albert Einstein!

• Born: 14th Mar. 1879– Ulm, Kingdom

of Württemberg, Germany

• Died: 18th Apr. 1955– Princeton, NJ

Albert Einstein

• Won Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the Photoelectric Effect.– The Photoelectric Effect would prove

pivotal in establishing Quantum Theory.• Developed the General Theory of

Relativity.• Most famous for discovering the Mass-

Energy Equivalence formula E=mc²

Mass-Energy Equivalence

In Physics, mass-energy equivalence is the concept that the mass of an object/system is a measure of its

energy content.

Sorry to cut it short!

But I took the liberty of making a review slide to go over the main

points…

…and to let you take notes if I went too fast or if you forgot!

To sum it up…• Otto Hahn is famous for discovering

nuclear fission.• Niels Bohr created the Bohr Model of the

atom.• Karl Braun built the first Cathode Ray

Tube (Braun Tube).• Werner Heisenberg is famous for his

Uncertainty Principle.• Wilhelm Röntgen produced and

discovered X-Rays (Röntgen Rays).• Walther Nernst is famous for creating

Chemical Affinity.

I encourage you to go out and explore what I’ve

shared with you today!

It’s amazing what happens when humans set their minds

to something.

You might just make the world a better place.

Works Cited• http://www.famousscientists.org/otto-hahn • http://www.nba.nbi.dk/release.html • http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureate

s/1922/bohr-bio.html

• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1932/heisenberg-bio.html

• http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Heisenberg.html

• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1909/braun-bio.html

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/509157/Wilhelm-Conrad-Rontgen

• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1920/nernst-bio.html

• http://einstein.biz/