Eleonore Trefftz

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Eleonore Trefftz (born August 15, 1920 in Aachen ; † October 22, 2017 in Munich ) was a German physicist and mathematician who was the first female Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics from 1972 . She was the fourth woman to be appointed Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society .

Life

Eleonore Trefftz, 1997 in Göttingen on the occasion of the memorial service for the physicist Friedrich Hund

After her father Erich Trefftz was offered a professorship for technical mechanics at the Technical University in Dresden in 1922 , the family moved in 1923 and lived in the Loschwitz district . In the summer of 1941 she began studying physics and mathematics at the Technical University of Dresden and, after completing her intermediate diploma, moved to the University of Leipzig . There she studied mathematics with van der Waerden , passed the main diploma examination "with distinction" in February 1944 and became the assistant to the physicist Friedrich Hund , in whose house she lived for a short time. In October 1945 Eleonore Trefftz defended her dissertation on the subject of "Curie conversion of mixed crystals on the basis of classical statistics" and passed the examination with the grade "with distinction". Shortly afterwards, in January 1946, she was employed by Martin Kersten at the Technical University of Dresden, who was initially acting administrator of the chair and was then appointed full professor. Eleonore Trefftz held exercises in theoretical physics and was supported in this by Friedrich Hund from the University of Leipzig, who provided her with a collection of exercises .

In the summer of 1948 Eleonore Trefftz left the Technical University of Dresden and switched to the Max Planck Institute for Physics , which was then located in Göttingen . With the money she earned there, she financed her brother's studies. Trefftz researched the theory of the transition probabilities of spectral lines and their practical calculation.

She moved with the MPI for Physics, whose institute director was Werner Heisenberg , to Munich in 1958 , in 1972 she was appointed "Scientific Member" of the Max Planck Society. A group on quantum chemistry was attached to your department at Ludwig Biermann .

Eleonore Trefftz stayed in Dresden several times during the division of Germany, including at a conference on the 25th anniversary of her father's death (1962), at a celebratory event on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the physicist Harry Dember (1982) and at the installation of her father's bust in the mathematics building of the TU (1987).

The Technical University of Dresden has named a visiting professor program after Eleonore Trefftz, which aims to counteract the “existing inequalities, particularly in the filling of professorships at the TU Dresden”.

Eleonore Trefftz died in October 2017 at the age of 97.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ TU Dresden: TU Dresden mourns Eleonore Trefftz . Press release, October 24, 2017.
  2. ↑ Before her, the breeding researcher Elisabeth Schiemann (1959 retired), the biochemist Birgit Vennesland in 1967 and the chemist Margot Becke in 1969 were appointed Scientific Members. Isolde Hausser and Lise Meitner were also scientific members of the MPG, but were appointed during the times of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the predecessor of the MPG, and taken over by the MPG. Overview of appointments in: Chronicle of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science 1948–1998 , Volume 2, ISBN 3-428-09068-3
  3. ↑ Equal Opportunities - “Eleonore Trefftz” guest professor program. Technical University of Dresden, accessed on December 1, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Trefftz, Eleanor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 2017
Place of death Munich