Gustav Jaumann

Gustav Jaumann (born April 18, 1863 in Caransebesch , Banat , Austrian Empire ; † July 21, 1924 in the Ötztal Alps, Austria) was an Austrian physicist .

Jaumann was born as the son of an Imperial and Royal War Commissioner in Caransebesch on the former Austrian military border. In 1880 he graduated from secondary school and began studying chemistry at the Technical University in Prague (1880–1881) and Vienna (1881–1883). He made up his Matura (Abitur) at high school and studied physics at the Charles University in Prague . In Prague he heard lectures from Ernst Mach and eventually became Mach's assistant. He stays with Mach for eight years. Mach and Jaumann wrote the second part of the textbook “Outline of the Study of Nature” published in 1890. Jaumann obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1890 and completed his habilitation as a private lecturer in physics in the same year. In 1891 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In 1893 Jaumann became an associate professor of experimental physics and physical chemistry at the "kk German Karl Friedrichs University" in Prague. In 1901 Jaumann was promoted to full professor of physics at the German Technical University in Brno .

The book on vector analysis written by Josiah Willard Gibbs in 1902 had a great influence on Jaumann. Because from 1905 Jaumann consistently made use of vector or tensor notation in his works , although he never used the term. He called the "stress tensor" "stress dyad ". He called tensors “third” and “fourth” level “triads” and “tetrads”.

Because Albert Einstein was in first place on the list of appointments in Prague in 1909 and Jaumann only in second, he withdrew his application.

Jaumann died on July 21, 1924 in the Ötztal Alps at the age of 61.

Jaumann can also be described as a pioneer of continuum mechanics .

literature

• Helmut Bednarczyk: Josef Finger and Gustav Jaumann two pioneers of today's continuum mechanics . In: Österreichische Ingenieur- und Architekten-Zeitschrift (ÖIAZ), 135 (1990), issue 10, pp. 538-545
• Jaumann Gustav. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 86.