Hendrik Anthony Kramers

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Hendrik Anthony Kramers (center) with George Uhlenbeck (left) and Samuel Goudsmit (right). Leiden, around 1928

Hendrik Anthony Kramers , called Hans, (born December 17, 1894 in Rotterdam , † April 24, 1952 in Oegstgeest ) was a Dutch physicist .

Career

From 1912, Kramers studied theoretical physics at the University of Leiden , especially with Paul Ehrenfest . In 1916 he received his doctorate in Leiden . In Copenhagen he worked on quantum theory as a collaborator with Niels Bohr . In 1924 he became a private lecturer at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Göttingen .

Together with Niels Bohr and John C. Slater he published the work "The quantum theory of radiation" (BKS theory), in which the strict validity of the law of conservation of energy in quantum theory was questioned in order to match the quantum theory of the electromagnetic field with the ideas to bring the older quantum theory into agreement. A little later, however, the theory was refuted by experiments. Kramers is known through many contributions to theoretical physics, which is expressed in the terms WKB approximation , Kramers-Kronig relation and Kramers theorem .

In 1926 he became professor for theoretical physics at the University of Utrecht , where he developed, among other things, a special formalism for the theory of the multiplet structure of spectra (1930). In 1934 he was offered an appointment at the University of Leiden, where he succeeded Paul Ehrenfest.

From 1929 (with one interruption from 1942 to 1945) he was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences . In 1947 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences . In 1951 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

He married Anna Petersen in 1920, with whom he had three daughters and a son.

Dirk ter Haar is one of his doctoral students .

literature

  • HBG Casimir : Kramers, Hendrik Anthony . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 7 : Iamblichus - Karl Landsteiner . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1973, p. 491-494 .
  • Max Dresden : Kramers's Contributions to Statistical Mechanics , Physics Today, September 1988, p. 26, abstract
  • Max Dresden: HAKramers - between tradition and revolution , Springer 1987
  • Dirk ter Haar : Master of Modern Physics. The Scientific Contributions of HA Kramers, Princeton University Press, 1998.

Web links

Commons : Hendrik Anthony Kramers  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HBG Casimir , review by Mehra, Rechenberg Historical development of Quantum Theory , Physikalische Blätter, Volume 39, 1983, p. 245
  2. ^ Niels Bohr, Hendrik A. Kramers, John C. Slater: The quantum theory of radiation . In: Philosophical Magazine . tape 47 , 1924, pp. 785-802 .
  3. ^ Past Members: Hans A. Kramers (1894-1952). Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, accessed December 28, 2019 .
  4. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kramers, Hendrik Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotterdam
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1952
Place of death Oegstgeest