Heinrich Kaiser (physicist)

Heinrich Kaiser (born February 5, 1907 in Bochum , † August 23, 1976 in Dortmund ) was a German physicist and chemist . He was one of the co-founders of the Institute for Spectrochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (ISAS), which he also headed for many years. His work is considered an important contribution to the development of spectrochemical analysis.

Life

Kaiser studied physics, mathematics and chemistry in Münster, Freiburg and Cologne. After receiving his doctorate in 1932, he first became Karl Försterling's assistant , before moving to the Carl Zeiss works in Jena in 1934 , where he worked on the development of spectral apparatus and headed the laboratories for spectral analysis in Jena and Dresden. An important scientific publication from this period is the article on electrical sparks and their use to excite spectra , published together with Arnold Wallraff in 1939 .

After the Zeiss works were occupied by the US Army in 1945 , Kaiser and his family were brought to Southwest Germany by the Americans. In 1947 he joined the state material testing center of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Dortmund, where he took over the management of the spectrochemical laboratory. On December 18, 1947, he completed his habilitation at the University of Bonn , where he held teaching positions in 1948.

A lecture given by Kaiser in Düsseldorf in 1951 gave the impetus to found a research institute for “modern analytical chemistry with physical, mainly spectroscopic methods”. Kaiser was entrusted with the management of the Institute for Spectrochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (ISAS), founded in 1952 . He represented a mathematical-statistical approach that provided the basics of spectrochemical analysis. The actual work at the institute consisted of the technical implementation of such basic methodological work through the use of equipment.

On March 27, 1953, Kaiser completed his habilitation at the University of Münster and in 1954 became an adjunct professor of physics, especially spectrochemistry, there.

Kaiser was one of the founders of the Documentation of Molecular Spectroscopy (DMS). He was a member of the IUPAC commission for spectrochemical and other optical analysis methods and was also its chairman from 1965 to 1969. He was involved in the organization of the international conferences Colloquium Spectroscopicum Internationale (CSI) and served as President of the XVI in Heidelberg in 1971. CSI He was an honorary member of the Society for Analytical Chemistry of Great Britain and received the 1974 Hasler Award from the American Society for Applied Spectroscopy .

Kaiser also caused a public sensation through his appearance as an expert in the retrial against Maria Rohrbach . He demonstrated considerable methodological deficiencies to his Munich colleague Walter Specht . Before the court he came to the conclusion: “The author of the report has no ideas about the research methods and analyzes used by his assistants. [...] The author does not master the most elementary expressions of scientific terminology. He uses completely meaningless, incomprehensible, non-existent expressions. The author apparently has no exact scientific vocabulary at all. "

Fonts

• Contribution to the theory of natural frequencies and self-excitation in electrical oscillation circuits. Springer, Berlin / Cologne 1933
• Instructions for performing spectrographic quantitative determinations on solid alloys with the aid of the spark. [Heinrich Kaiser]. Zeiss, Jena 1938
• with A. Wallraff: About electrical sparks and their use to excite spectra . In: Annalen Der Physik 426, no. 4 (1939), pp. 297-340.
• Rapid spectrochemical analysis of steels in large American companies. H. Kaiser. Verlag Stahleisen, Düsseldorf 1941
• Contributions to the photometric evaluation of the spectral recordings in the spectrochemical analysis. Math.-nat. Hab.-Schr. Bonn. Specola Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano, Heidelberg / Göttingen / Berlin 1947
• Status of spectral analytical test methods and conclusions for German conditions. , Cologne / Opladen 1952
• Development of spectrochemical analysis methods for technical glasses and similar substances. West German Publishing house, Cologne 1957
• Card index for documentation of molecular spectroscopy. Heinrich Kaiser, Gerhard Bergmann , Günter Kresze . Institute for Spectrochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Dortmund-Aplerbeck. West German Publishing house, Cologne / Opladen 1958

literature

• H. Massmann: Obituary. Dr. H. Kaiser . In: Spectrochemica Acta 31B (1976), pp. 429-430.
• RL Mitchell, TS West and R. Belcher: Obituaries: Heinrich Kaiser; George Frederick Smith . In: Proc. Anal. Div. Chem. Soc. 14 (1977), pp. 40-42, doi : 10.1039 / AD9771400040 .

Web links

• History of ISAS

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Searched and found . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1961, pp. 28-37 ( online ).