Hans Pallmann

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Bust of Hans Pallmann (1969)

Hans Pallmann (born May 21, 1903 in Frauenfeld , † October 13, 1965 in Zurich ) was a Swiss agricultural chemist and soil scientist . His research at ETH Zurich was mainly concerned with the colloid chemical properties of humus substances and the formation of soils . From 1949 Pallmann was President of the Swiss School Council .

Life path

Hans Pallmann, the son of a hotelier , first attended an agricultural college and from 1922 studied agriculture and natural sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich . In 1927 he received the diploma of a subject teacher and in 1930 he did his doctorate there under Georg Wiegner with a dissertation in the field of colloid chemistry . In 1932 he acquired the license to teach special agricultural chemistry (soil science) at the ETH with a paper on the formation and properties of Swiss soils.

In 1935 Pallmann received the title of associate professor . In 1936 he was appointed full professor and, as the successor to his doctoral supervisor Georg Wiegner, was entrusted with the management of the Agricultural Chemistry Institute at ETH Zurich. In 1947 the college of professors elected him rector of the university. From 1949 until his death he was full-time President of the Swiss School Council. In 1950 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences .

Research priorities

Pallmann's research interests focused primarily on the colloid-chemical properties of humus substances and the processes involved in the formation of soils. Pallmann viewed soils as polydisperse systems. However, he did not study the genesis of soils under laboratory conditions, but directly at the natural site, i.e. where the soils were created under the given environmental conditions. His habilitation thesis, published in 1932, is one of the outstanding treatises on soil formation and soils in Switzerland. He also devoted his attention to the classification of soils and in later publications he made suggestions to improve the soil systematics that had been in use until then .

Right at the beginning of his soil science field studies, Pallmann was accepted into a Swiss working group co-founded by Josias Braun-Blanquet , which had set itself the goal of researching the connections between plant communities and soils . Through several of his own research contributions, Pallmann sustainably promoted the concerns of this working group. In 1948, in a published speech from the Rector's Office, he showed the fundamentals of such interdisciplinary research approaches.

Pallmann, however, had his numerous doctoral students work on practical questions. The focus was on investigations into overheating of haystacks , the utilization of sewage and sewage sludge and, during the Second World War, problems with wood saccharification . Pallmann was a popular university professor and his lectures and excursions were very popular with students.

Pallmann's high level of expertise has been widely recognized in scientific circles. He was an honorary doctor of the University of Vienna , as well as a board member, president or honorary member of the Swiss Society for Analytical and Applied Chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture, the Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture, the International Colloid Society and the International Soil Science Society .

President of the Swiss School Council

In 1949 Pallmann gave up teaching and research and took over the office of President of the Swiss School Council, which he held full-time for seventeen years until his death in 1965.

During these seventeen years in office, Pallmann was able to sustainably promote the development of ETH Zurich into a modern university. Thanks to his organizational skills and a forward-looking planning policy, he created 91 new professorships in addition to the 95 existing ones and founded over twenty new institutes through spatial expansion. He succeeded in incorporating the Federal Institute for Reactor Research and the Geobotanical Institute Rübel into the ETH. He was also instrumental in founding and involved in the activities of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) .

Main publications

  • The hydrogen activity in dispersions and colloidal systems . Diss. TH Zurich 1930. - Zugl. in: Colloid Journal. Colloidchemische Aufhefte Vol. 30, H. 8-12, S. 335-405.
  • The floor. Its formation and its properties with special consideration of Swiss conditions . Habil.-Schr. TH Zurich 1932. As Sep. printing: Verbandsdruckerei Bern 1932.
  • About the historical development of soil science . In: Swiss Agricultural Monthly Issues Vol. 12, 1934, pp. 47–55.
  • Georg Wiegner: Instructions for the quantitative agricultural chemical internship . With the participation of Hans Jenny. Verlag Gebr. Borntraeger Berlin 1926. - 2nd edition, revised by Hans Pallmann, ibid. 1938 = Collection of scientific internships vol. 12.
  • Soil science and plant sociology . Rector's speech given on November 15, 1947 at the ETH Zurich. Polygraphischer Verlag Zürich 1948 = Cultural and political science writings H. 60.
  • Commemorative remarks on the centenary of the Swiss Federal Council . Spoken on June 12, 1948 at the academic celebration of the Federal Institute of Technology. Polygraphischer Verlag Zürich 1948 = Cultural and political science writings H. 64.
  • Morphological Problems in Agricultural Chemistry . Rector's speech given on November 13, 1948 at the Federal Institute of Technology. Polygraphischer Verlag Zürich 1949 = Cultural and political science writings H. 66.
  • Josias Braun-Blanquet, Hans Pallmann and Roman Bach: Plant-sociological and pedological studies in the Swiss National Park and its neighboring areas. Part 2: Vegetation and soils of the forest and dwarf shrub communities (Vaccinio-Piceetalia) . 1954 = Results of the scientific investigations of the Swiss National Park Vol. 4 (NF) 28.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Pallmann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss agricultural chemist and soil scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Frauenfeld
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1965
Place of death Zurich