Herbert Arthur Stuart

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Arthur Stuart (born March 27, 1899 in Zurich ; † April 8, 1974 in Hanover ) was a Swiss physicist who made contributions to molecular physics .

Life

From 1920 to 1925 Herbert Arthur Stuart studied physics at the University of Würzburg and the University of Göttingen . In 1925 he did his doctorate with James Franck in Göttingen; his work related to fluorescence , resonance and mercury . He then worked with Otto Stern , the director of the "Institute for Physical Chemistry", at the University of Hamburg , and from 1925 to 1936 as an assistant at the Physics Institute of the Albertus University in Königsberg , where he also worked as a private lecturer from 1928. Here he worked with Richard Gans , among others .

Stuart completed his habilitation in 1928 with a paper on the temperature dependence of permittivities in gases and vapors. From 1930 to 1931 he was a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation at the University of Berkeley in California and worked from 1935 to 1936 as associate professor for physics in Königsberg. In 1936 he took over the prestigious professorship for theoretical physics at the University of Berlin as a substitute until 1939 and thus came into close contact with the greats of German physics.

During the Second World War he was a full professor for experimental physics and director of the Physics Institute at the Technical University of Dresden . At that time he was working on the secret V-weapon project in the “Peenemünde Working Group”.

After the end of the Second World War, he worked from 1946 as an assistant at the TH Hannover, which he had to end in 1947 due to British pressure. From 1948 he worked initially as a physicist in the paint factory Bayer AG in Leverkusen. From 1952 he had a teaching position and in 1955 he was appointed full professor for physical chemistry at the University of Mainz , where until his retirement in 1966 he was professor for physical chemistry and head of the laboratory for polymer physics .

Stuart joined the SA in 1933 and campaigned for the exclusion of Jewish members in the German Physical Society . He also wanted to put society under stricter state control. He accused the Amsterdam physicist A. Michels of sabotage in the Second World War, whereupon he had to flee from the Gestapo . This burdened Stuart considerably after 1945. In 1947 Ursula Martius attacked him because of his Nazi past. Max von Laue advised him to work in industry first.

Publications (selection)

  • 1929: Kerreffekt and molecular construction
  • 1934: molecular structure
  • 1943: Short textbook of physics , with Gerhard Klages , 19th edition 2009
  • 1952: Structure of the free molecules
  • 1956: Light scattering measurements on solutions of high polymer materials , with HG Fendler

literature

  • Stuart, Herbert (Arthur). In: Dorit Petschel : 175 years of TU Dresden. Volume 3: The professors of the TU Dresden 1828–2003. Edited on behalf of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the TU Dresden e. V. von Reiner Pommerin , Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-412-02503-8 , p. 949.
  • Fischer, EW: Herbert Arthur Stuart 1899 - 1974 , Physikalische Blätter 30 (1974), p. 510f.

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Dieter Hoffmann / Mark Walker: Physicists between autonomy and adaptation. The German Physical Society in the Third Reich , Wiley, Weinheim 2007, pp. 409ff u. 392ff
personal data
SURNAME Stuart, Herbert Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1974
Place of death Hanover