Albert Defant

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Albert Joseph Maria Defant (born July 12, 1884 in Trient , † December 24, 1974 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian meteorologist and oceanographer. He made significant contributions to the understanding of the physics of the atmosphere and is considered to be one of the founders of physical oceanography.

Life

Albert Defant was born at a time when Trento was part of Austria-Hungary. Trento has been Trento in Italy since 1919. Albert Defant attended schools in Trient and Innsbruck and then studied mathematics, physics and geophysics at the University of Innsbruck from 1902 . Austria. During his studies he became a member of the University Choir of Skalds in Innsbruck .

Defant received his doctorate from the University of Innsbruck in 1906 with a dissertation on droplet sizes when it rains. From 1907 he worked at the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics in Vienna, Austria. In 1909 he completed his habilitation at the University of Vienna with a thesis on lake level fluctuations in Lake Garda. Until 1918 he worked in the central institute and mainly dealt with questions of atmospheric physics, especially in mountainous regions. He also gained experience with practical problems with weather forecasting. In the later years of Vienna, two areas of work became more and more important for him, on the one hand the large-scale atmospheric circulation and on the other hand fluctuations in water level in lakes and tributaries, especially as seiches and tides .

Defant was professor for cosmic physics at the University of Innsbruck from 1919 to 1926. During this time, he demonstrated that large, turbulent structures in the atmosphere can enable meridional heat transport from tropical to high latitudes.

He was soon also regarded as a specialist in tides and was invited to two trips to the North Sea in 1925 and 1926 on the German survey ship “Panther”. From 1926 to 1945 he was professor of oceanography at the "Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität" (later Humboldt University ) and director of the Institute and Museum for Oceanography in Berlin , the leading German marine research institution at the time. After Alfred Merz , the scientific director of the German Atlantic Expedition of the research and surveying ship "Meteor" died in Buenos Aires in 1925–1927, Defant took over the management from 1926.

His work in Berlin focused on the physics of the ocean, in particular on the upper area with the interface with the atmosphere. International relations existed mainly with Scandinavian scientists. These international connections were interrupted by the Second World War . Defant stayed in Berlin until the institute was bombed for the first time. Then he took on teaching duties in Vienna and worked in Wunsiedel, where the library of the Berlin Institute had been moved.

In 1945 he was offered the chair for meteorology and geophysics at the University of Innsbruck (now Austria again). From 1945 to 1955 he was again professor in Innsbruck and director of the Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics. During this period, from 1949 to 1950, a guest researcher residency at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in La Jolla, USA. From 1950 to 1951 he was rector of the University of Innsbruck. After his retirement in 1955, he repeatedly worked as a visiting professor, from 1952 to 1956 at the University of Hamburg and from 1956 to 1958 at the Free University of Berlin . In between there was a stay at the Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut in Stockholm from 1957 to 1958.

Albert Defant had been married to Maria Krepper since 1909, with whom he had three children. After the death of his first wife in 1949, he married Maria Theresia Schletterer in 1952. The meteorologist Friedrich Defant is his son.

Awards

  • 1912 “Ludwig Haitinger Prize” from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  • 1917 Austrian Cross of Merit in Gold, Vienna, Austria
  • 1928 “Alfred Ackermann-Teubner-Gedächtnispreis” for the promotion of the mathematical sciences, Leipzig, Germany
  • 1932 “ Vega Medal ” from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1933 Golden " Alexander Agassiz Medal " from the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, USA
  • 1936 “Galathea Medal” from the Royal Danish Geographical Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 1943 “Arrhenius Prize” from the University of Leipzig, Germany
  • 1947 "Honorary Ring" of the Austrian Society of the United Nations League, Vienna, Austria
  • 1947 Naming of the Defant glacier in the Antarctic Palmerland
  • 1956 "Emil Wiechert Medal" from the German Geophysical Society
  • 1957 Honorary Doctorate from the Free University of Berlin, Germany
  • 1962 Order “Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts”, Austria
  • 1963 "Joachim Jungius Medal", Joachim Jungius Society of Sciences , Hamburg, Germany
  • 1974 “Golden Jubilee Medal” from the University of Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1974 Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art, Vienna
  • 1975 (posthumous) Golden Honorary Medal of the Oceanography Society of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
  • 1997 Name of Defantbank in the Antarctic Weddell Sea

Honorary memberships

  • 1926 Scientific and Medical Association, Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1939 Pomeranian Geographical Society, Greifswald, Germany
  • 1939 Russian Geographical Society , Leningrad, Russia
  • 1939 Royal Dutch Geographical Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1949 New York Academy of Sciences , New York, USA
  • 1956 German Scientific Commission for Marine Research

Memberships in academies of science

Works

Albert Defant's publications include 222 articles and 12 books. A selection is given here.

  • The circulation of the atmosphere in the temperate latitudes of the earth (main features of a theory of climatic fluctuations.). In: Geografiska Ann. 3, 1921, pp. 209-266.
  • The meridional temperature distribution on earth and the mass exchange between the equator and the pole. In: Meteor. Z. 1922.
  • Tidal problems in the sea near land. In: Problems of Cosmic Physics. Volume 6. H. Grand, Hamburg 1925.
  • Weather and forecast. 2nd Edition. Ms. Deutike, Vienna 1926.
  • Atmosphere and climate. In: Encyclopedia of Geography. FR. Deutike, Vienna 1928.
  • Statics and dynamics of the atmosphere. In: Handbuch der Experimentalphysik, Geophysik. vol. 1, Vienna and Harms , Leipzig 1928.
  • Physics of the sea. In: Handbuch der Experimentalphysik, Geophysik. Volume 2, Vienna and Harms, Leipzig 1928. (corr. 1931)
  • Dynamic oceanography. (= Introduction to Geophysics. Volume 3). J. Springer, Berlin 1929.
  • Stratification and circulation of the Atlantic Ocean - The troposphere. (= Scientific results. German. Atlant. Exp. Volume VI (1), Lfg. 3). Berlin 1936. (Translated by WJ Emery: Stratification and Circulation of the Atlantic Ocean - The Troposphere. Al-Ahram Center for Scientific Translations, Cairo 1981)
  • with G. Böhnecke and H. Wattenberg: The oceanographic work of the survey ship “Meteor” in the Denmark Strait and in the Irmingersee in the years 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1935. l. Part. (= Published by the Inst. F. Oceanography, Berlin. Volume 32). 1936.
  • with Hans Frebold (Ed.): The influence of the reflectivity of water and ice on the heat turnover of the polar regions. (= Publications of the German Scientific Institute DWI in Copenhagen. Series 1: Arctic. No. 5). Borntraeger brothers, Berlin 1942.
  • The tides of the solid earth, the sea and the atmosphere. In: Preuss. Akad. D. Sciences, lectures, etc. Fonts. H. 10, 1943.
  • Geophysics and its position within the framework of the rest of the natural sciences. Rector inauguration speech. University of Innsbruck, 1951.
  • The ebb and flow of the sea, the atmosphere and the earth fortress. (= Understandable Science. Volume 49). 2nd Edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1973.
  • Tidal waves and tides of the water. In: Encyclopedia of Physics. vol. 48: Geophysics II. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1957.
  • with F. Defant: Atmospheric Dynamics . Academic Publishing Company, Frankfurt am Main 1957.
  • with F. Defant: Physical dynamics of the atmosphere. Academic Publishing Company, Frankfurt 1958.
  • Ebb and Flow. In: Ann Arbor Sciences Library. 2nd Edition. The University Press of Michigan, 1960.
  • Physical Oceanography . Pergamon Press, New York / London / Paris, Vol. II, 1960, Vol. I, 1961.
  • as editor: Scientific results of the German Atlantic expedition on the research and survey ship Meteor (1925-1927). de Gruyter, Berlin, DNB 451142365 .

swell

  • F. Spiess: The meteor ride. Research and experiences of the German Atlantic Expedition 1925–1927. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1928. (Translated by WJ Emery: The Meteor Expedition - Scientific Results of the German Atlantic Expedition, 1925–1927. Amerind Publishing, New Delhi 1985).
  • Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, AG (ed.): Reich manual of the German society. Volume 1, Berlin 1931.
  • G. Neumann: Professor Dr. A. Defant for his 60th birthday. In: Annals of Hydrography and Maritime Meteorology. 72, no. 7, 1944, pp. 219-221.
  • H. Thorade: A. Defant sixty years old. In: The natural sciences. 32, 27/39, 1944, pp. 165-166.
  • Festschrift to 70th birthday. In: Archives for Meteorology, Geophysics and Bioclimatology. 1954.
  • G. Wüst: Albert Defant eighty years old. In: The natural sciences. 51, 1964, pp. 301-302.
  • G. Wüst: Albert Defant on his 80th birthday. In: Contributions to the physics of the atmosphere. 37, no. 2, 1964, pp. 59-68.
  • F. Steinhauser: Albert Defant. In: Almanac of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 125, 1975.
  • G. Böhnecke: In memoriam Albert Defant 1884–1974. In: Meteor Research Results. Row A: General, Physics and Chemistry of the Sea. no. 18, 1976, pp. 1-8.
  • A. Pichler: Albert Defant in memory (In memory of Albert Defant). In: Innsbruck University News. VIII, 1978.
  • A. Pichler: Albert Defant Memorial Colloquium. In: Communications of the German Meteorological Society. Issue 1/1985, pp. 59-62.
  • H. Weidemann: Albert Defant, 1884–1974. In: German Society for Marine Research messages. 1, 1985, pp. 22-24.
  • H. Oberkofler, P. Goller: Research on Innsbruck University History. 16, University of Innsbruck, 1991.
  • G. Settlers: Defant, Albert Josef Maria. In: N. Koertge (Ed.): New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. vol. 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 2007, pp. 263-267.
  • S. Brönnimann, F. Frei: Defant's work on North Atlantic climate variability revisited. In: Meteor. Z. 17, 1, 2008, pp. 93-102.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d G. Böhnecke: In memoriam Albert Defant 1884–1974. In: Meteor Research Results. Row A: General, Physics and Chemistry of the Sea. no. 18 1976, pp. 1-8.
  2. ↑ a b G. Siedler: Defant, Albert Josef Maria. In: N. Koertge (Ed.): New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. vol. 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 2007, pp. 263-267.
  3. ↑ Paul Meißner (Ed.): Alt-Herren-Directory of the German Singers. Leipzig 1934, p. 67.
  4. ↑ a b A. Pichler: Albert Defant to commemorate (In memory of Albert Defant). In: Innsbruck University News. VIII, 1978.
  5. ^ H. Oberkofler, P. Goller: Albert Defant (1919–1926 and 1945–1953). In: Research on Innsbruck University History. 16, University of Innsbruck, 1991.
  6. ↑ A. Defant: The circulation of the atmosphere in the moderate latitudes of the earth (basic features of a theory of climate fluctuations.). In: Geografiska Ann. 3, 1921, pp. 209-266.
  7. ↑ A. Defant: The meridional temperature distribution on earth and the mass exchange between the equator and the pole. In: Meteor. Z. 1922.
  8. ^ S. Brönnimann, F. Frei: Defant's work on Nort Atlantic climate variability revisited. In: Meteor. Z. 17, 1, 2008, pp. 93-102.
  9. ^ H. Oberkofler, P. Goller: Research on Innsbruck University History. 16, University of Innsbruck, 1991.
  10. ↑ F. Spiess: The Meteor Trip. Research and experiences of the German Atlantic Expedition 1925–1927. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1928. (Translated by WJ Emery: The Meteor Expedition - Scientific Results of the German Atlantic Expedition, 1925–1927. Amerind Publishing, New Delhi 1985).
  11. ^ H. Thorade: A. Defant sixty years old. In: The natural sciences. 32, 27/39, 1944, pp. 165-166.
  12. ↑ G. Böhnecke: In memoriam Albert Defant 1884–1974. In: Meteor Research Results. Row A: General, Physics and Chemistry of the Sea. no. 18, 1976, pp. 1-8.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r F. Steinhauser: In memory of Albert Defant. In: Almanac of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 125. Archives for Meteorology, Geophysics and Bioclimatology, Series A, 24 (4), 1975, pp. 385-388.
  14. ↑ a b c A. Pichler: Albert Defant Memorial Colloquium. In: Communications of the German Meteorological Society. Issue 1/1985, pp. 59-62.

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personal data
SURNAME Defant, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Defant, Albert Joseph Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian meteorologist and oceanographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Trent
DATE OF DEATH December 24th 1974
Place of death innsbruck