Alaric Weiss

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alarich Weiss (born February 21, 1925 in Regenpeilstein , Upper Palatinate, † October 10, 1995 in Darmstadt ) was a German physical chemist and university professor .

biography

Weiss was the son of Michael and Therese Weiss, nee King. From the age of eleven to (almost) eighteen, Weiss was a boarding school student at the old grammar school in Regensburg. After becoming a member of the Hitler Youth, he volunteered for the Waffen SS at the age of 17 . He took part in World War II with the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" . He concealed membership in the course of the denazification process.

He had been married to Elisabeth Kräuter since 1955. His brother was Armin Weiß .

He studied physics from January 1946 to the winter semester 1948/49 at the University of Erlangen , then at the University of Mainz and the TH Darmstadt . He received his doctorate in 1955 with a dissertation on the subject of radiographic determination of the electron distribution in crystals - The electron distribution in calcium fluoride with Helmut Witte as a Dr. rer. nat. In 1956/57 he was a visiting researcher ( PostDoc ) at Indiana University Bloomington in Indiana , USA and in 1957/58 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology , Pittsburgh . Since 1958 he was at the Eduard Zintl Institute in Darmstadt and worked successfully in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as well as solid-state research and materials research. In 1962 he completed his habilitation in physical chemistry.

Weiss was assistant professor from 1959 to 1962 and from 1967 to 1972 professor in a chair for physical chemistry at the University of Münster . From 1972 to 1993 he was professor in the chemistry department at the Technical University of Darmstadt . He was visiting professor at the universities of Madras, Geneva (1979) and Nagoya (1982).

In 1987/88 Weiss was first chairman of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry , Frankfurt; From 1979 to 1991 he was co-editor of the reports of the Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, An International Journal of Physical Chemistry. He was a member of the Society of German Chemists and the American Physical Society . The Federal President appointed him to the Science Council in 1982 , to which he was a member until 1988; During the last three years he was first deputy chairman and then chairman of the Scientific Commission of the Science Council.

Weiss was a member of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's selection committee for research fellows from all over the world for more than 20 years. Numerous Humboldt fellows were active in his working group. Together with his wife, he established the “Alarich and Elisabeth Weiss Foundation”, which is administered by the Humboldt Foundation.

Publications (selection)

  • Alarich Weiss: Nuclear quadrupole resonance , advances in chemical research; 30, ISBN 3-540-05781-1
  • Alarich Weiss, Helmut Wittel: Magnetochemie , Verlag Chemie, Weinheim / Bergstrasse, 1973, ISBN 3-527-25398-X
  • Alarich Weiss et al .: Crystal structure and chemical bonds , Verlag Chemie, Weinheim / Bergstrasse, 1983, ISBN 3-527-25612-1
  • Alarich Weiss et al .: Structure and physical properties of organometallic compounds , Westdeutscher Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-531-08353-8
  • Wolfgang Pies, Alarich Weiss: Crystal structure data for inorganic compounds (15 vols.) In Landoldt-Börnstein, Neue Serie, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (The authors collected data on the structure of inorganic compounds for more than a decade and published them in 15 sub-volumes for more than 6,000 pages.)
  • Weiss published a total of more than 350 scientific papers.

Honors

  • The Alarich Weiss Prize of the Chemistry Department of the TU Darmstadt was named after him. Students donated the prize for excellent work in physical chemistry at TU Darmstadt. It has been awarded annually since 1995. The prize is endowed with a maximum of 1000 euros.
  • In October 2013, a street on the Lichtwiese campus of the TU Darmstadt, on which the chemistry department is mainly located, was renamed Alarich-Weiss-Straße. As early as February 2013, the Darmstadt city council decided to have the namesake of street names checked "whether their life and political attitudes can be reconciled with the values ​​of a free-democratic society", examining in particular their work during the Nazi era should be. In 2015, Mayor Partsch appointed an advisory board on street names, which presented its final report in 2018. The advisory board unanimously agreed to rename 7 streets; among these was Alarich-Weiss-Strasse. In response to a corresponding draft resolution from the magistrate, which followed the recommendation of the advisory board, the city council decided in June 2019, i.a. a. to rename the Alarich-Weiss-Straße.
  • Research Award of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1993)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alarich Weiss in: Photo gallery of selected chemistry professors who formerly worked at TU Darmstadt, accessed on October 4, 2018
  2. ↑ No more honors in public space . Website of the TU Darmstadt, May 9, 2019. Accessed June 21, 2019.
  3. ↑ freunde.tu-darmstadt.de: Alarich-Weiss-Preis , accessed on June 22, 2019.
  4. ↑ Brief curriculum vitae TU Darmstadt . TU Darmstadt website, September 18, 2013. Accessed June 23, 2019.
  5. ↑ Final report of the advisory board on checking Darmstadt street names ; Investigation on Alarich Weiss pp. 58–62 (PDF; 2.4 MB). Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  6. ↑ Submission to the municipal authorities regarding the final report of the Advisory Board on the review of Darmstadt street names (PDF; 136 kB), April 30, 2019. Accessed June 23, 2019.
  7. ↑ Eight streets in Darmstadt are renamed - for political reasons . Frankfurter Rundschau Online , June 21, 2019. Accessed June 21, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Weiss, Alaric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physical chemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Regenpeilstein , Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1995
Place of death Darmstadt