Gerd Buschhorn

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Gerd W. Buschhorn (born June 21, 1934 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe , † January 20, 2010 in Starnberg ) was a German elementary particle physicist . He was a Scientific Member and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute) and recipient of the Gustav Hertz Prize of the German Physical Society . From 1980 to 1986 he headed the Institute for Physics at what was then the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics as Managing Director. After the sub-institutes became independent in 1991, he was appointed Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Director of the Institute.

Life

Gerd Buschhorn studied physics at the Technical University of Munich and received his doctorate there in 1961 under Heinz Maier-Leibnitz with a thesis on neutron physics . After completing his doctorate, Gerd Buschhorn went to the German Electron Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, where he set up a group with which he carried out investigations into the mechanisms of photo production of mesons with high-energy gamma quanta in the 1960s. For the results of their research activities, the Buschhorn group received the Physics Prize (now: Gustav Hertz Prize ) of the German Physical Society in 1970 . During a research stay (1967–1968) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in the USA, Gerd Buschhorn was involved in experiments to research the structure of the proton . During the 1970s, Gerd Buschhorn conducted the DASP experiment at the DORIS electron-positron storage ring of the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), investigating the spectroscopy of new types of heavy mesons that contain the charm quark and the production and decay properties of the dew Leptons through. Later, the group around Gerd Buschhorn looked for new elementary particles at the then highest-energy electron-positron storage ring PETRA with the CELLO detector.

Buschhorn was appointed Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich in 1972. There, Gerd Buschhorn greatly expanded elementary particle physics in the Max Planck Society and promoted and developed the connection with DESY. Gerd Buschhorn had a pioneering influence on the research possibilities at DESY and used it until after his retirement in 2002.

From the mid-1980s to 2002, Gerd Buschhorn played a leading role in investigating the structure of the proton and the strong interaction at the HERA electron-proton storage ring at DESY. In addition to his work at DESY, Gerd Buschhorn successfully studied the mobility of electrons in liquids and dense gases, the properties of coherently generated X-rays and the formation of structures in the boundary layer of critical fluids .

In addition to his research activities, Gerd Buschhorn taught as an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich and introduced numerous young scientists to current research in his specialist areas.

From 1994 to 1997 Gerd Buschhorn was chairman of the chemical-physical-technical (CPT) section of the Max Planck Society . During his tenure as the chairman of the section, he helped found institutes and set up working groups in the new federal states.

Gerd Buschhorn was married to the doctor Jutta Buschhorn. The marriage resulted in two daughters, Ulrike Tiemann, nee Buschhorn, pediatrician († 2009), and Ursula Buschhorn , film and television actress.

Awards and memberships (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • Low-energy gamma radiation when trapping thermal neutrons from rhodium , 1961 (dissertation, TU Munich)
  • X-ray polarimetry using the photoeffect in a CCD detector , Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, 1993
  • Temperature dependence of planar channeling radiation in silicon, germanium and beryllium between 12 K and 330 K , Institut für Kernphysik, Darmstadt, 1997
  • Fundamental physics - Heisenberg and beyond , Springer, Berlin, 2004 (Ed. With Julius Wess )
  • Supermicroscope for Investigating the Structure of the Proton , Review article in the journal Naturwissenschaften

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Physical Society: Gustav Hertz Prize
  2. ↑ Bavarian research association for technical-scientific high-performance computing: FORTWIHR Quartl. - Edition 19/1998

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Buschhorn, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buschhorn, Gerd W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German elementary particle physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 2010
Place of death Starnberg