Hilde Levi

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Hilde Levi around 1940

Hilde Levi (born May 9, 1909 in Frankfurt am Main , † July 26, 2003 in Copenhagen , Denmark ) was a German - Danish physicist . She was one of the scientific pioneers of autoradiography and the radiocarbon method and their application. After her retirement she devoted herself to the history of science , in particular to the estate of Nobel Prize winner George de Hevesy .

Early years and education

Hilde Levi was born on May 9, 1909 in Frankfurt am Main as the daughter of Adolf Levi, the director of the Frankfurter Metallgesellschaft, and his wife Clara (née Reis). Raised in an assimilated Jewish family, the musically and scientifically gifted Hilde Levi attended a Frankfurt high school. After taking the Abitur exams at the Victoria School in 1928, her parents sent Hilde to England for a short time. In spring 1929 she began studying physics and chemistry in Munich, where she was taught by Arnold Sommerfeld , Kasimir Fajans and Heinrich Otto Wieland , among others . For her doctoral thesis, she moved to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem in 1931 . Here she did her doctorate in 1934, under the supervision of Max von Laue , Peter Pringsheim , Fritz Haber and her doctoral supervisor Hans Beutler on the spectra of alkali halogen vapors.

emigration

After the takeover of the Nazis in the spring of 1933 worsened especially after the enforcement of the Aryan paragraph , the working and living conditions of Jewish scientists at universities and research institutions. Immediately after successfully passing her doctoral examination, Hilde Levi emigrated, as did many of her colleagues, abroad. Hilde Levi's doctoral certificate was given to her brother Edwin months after the exam. Through the mediation of the Danish section of the International Federation of University Women , she was able to take up a position at the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen as a scientific assistant to James Franck , who emigrated from Göttingen in 1933 .

Scientific research after 1934

Her stay at the Niels Bohr Institute was initially financed by her father and later funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rask Ørstadt Fund . Levi worked as Franck's assistant on studies of the fluorescence of chlorophyll. After James Franck was appointed to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1935, Hilde Levi became a scientific assistant to George de Hevesy , who also had to emigrate from Germany in 1934, on the recommendation of Niels Bohr . In Copenhagen in 1935, Hilde Levi built a test facility for the production of neutrons , following instructions from Lise Meitner , which formed the basis for a series of scientific experiments. Both scientists worked on the irradiation of rare earths with neutrons. They discovered characteristic decay times for the individual elements and developed the neutron activation analysis . In December 1938, Hilde Levi had to hand in her German passport at the embassy and at the same time the Berlin University revoked her doctorate without giving any reasons. In Copenhagen she worked with de Hevesy and other scientists on the study of the metabolism of vital elements, such as the phosphorus metabolism of bones, and thus provided an important basis for the development of nuclear medicine . When Denmark was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on April 9, 1940 , she initially stayed in Copenhagen and now worked at the Carlsberg Institute . In 1943 she was threatened with deportation and in September she had to flee to Sweden via the Öresund , along with her personal secretary Niels Bohrs, Sophie Hellmann and two of Niels Bohr's sons . In Stockholm she worked at the Wenner Gren Institute for Experimental Biology under John Runnström until her return to Copenhagen after the end of the Second World War . She continued her radiobiochemical research at the University of Copenhagen's Zoophysiological Institute , headed by a close friend of George de Hevesy, Nobel Prize winner August Krogh . On a research trip to the USA in 1947/48 she familiarized herself with the radiocarbon method for determining the age of dead organic matter. Back in Copenhagen, together with the Danish National Museum , she developed the first measuring device for C14 dating in Europe and achieved internationally acclaimed scientific results in the following years. The measuring arrangement she developed was used to determine the age of the Grauballe man as early as the early 1950s .

During her stay in the USA she was also introduced to the technique of autoradiography. She also used the method at the Finsen Institute in Copenhagen to research the side effects of using Thorotrast .

Since 1960 Hilde Levi has taught as a lecturer at Copenhagen University. From 1954 to 1971 she advised the Danish health authorities on radiation protection issues .

Scientific history work

In 1947 she published a short biographical sketch of Lise Meitner, whom she had known since her graduation in Berlin and had later met in Sweden. After her retirement in 1979, Hilde Levi devoted herself increasingly to the history of science. She did a great job building up the Niels Bohr archive and was involved in an exhibition on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 1985 in Copenhagen. Another focus of her work on the history of science was the processing of the scientific and personal legacy of her long-time researcher colleague George de Hevesy. In 1985 she wrote the biographical work George de Hevesy, Life and Work .

Private life

Hilde Levi was never married. She was engaged to the physicist Hans Bethe since September 1934 , with whom she had been friends for 9 years. Due to his mother's reservations about marrying a Jewish woman, Bethe broke off the engagement in December 1934 a few days before the planned wedding. The mother herself came from a Jewish family. Bethe's behavior aroused the greatest disapproval and lifelong reservations about him from Levi's colleagues Niels Bohr and James Franck.

In 2001 Hilde Levi was invited by Humboldt University to a meeting of former scientists who had been dismissed after 1933 and had to emigrate. A publication with a short biography of Hilde Levi was published on the occasion of this event.

She spent the last years of her life in a retirement home in Hellerup near Copenhagen. She died in Copenhagen on June 26, 2003 at the age of 94.

Awards

In 1975 Hilde Levi was awarded the gold medal of the George de Hevesy Foundation.

Publications

  • About the spectra of alkali-halogen vapors , dissertation 71 p., Frankfurt am Main: 1934
  • in collaboration with George de Hevesy: Action of slow neutrons on rare earth elements , Nature, Vol. 137, 1936, pp. 165–202
  • in collaboration with George de Hevesy: Artificial radioactivity of Dysprosium and other rare earth elements , Nature, Vol. 136, 1935, pp. 83-120
  • in collaboration with George de Hevesy: Artificial activity of hafnium and some other elements , Matematisk-fysiske meddelelser; November 15, Munsksgaard København 1938, 18 pp.
  • Note on the permeability of red blood corpuscles to potassium , Matematisk-fysiske meddelelser, 23.10, Munsksgaard København 1945, 9 pp.
  • The Action of honey bee-venom on red corpuscles, especially on their ionic permeability , Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1945 [ed.] 1946
  • in collaboration with AW Rogers: On the quantitative evaluation of autoradiograms , Matematisk-fysiske meddelelser, 33.11, Munsksgaard København 1963, 50 pp.
  • in collaboration with EC Anderson: Some problems in radiocarbon dating , Matematisk-fysiske meddelelser, 27.6, Munsksgaard København 1952, 22 pp.
  • George de Hevesy, Life and Work , Taylor & Francis 1985, ISBN 978-0-85274-555-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Rürup, with the participation of Michael Schüring: Fates and Careers: Memorial book for the researchers expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society by the National Socialists. Wallstein 2008, p. 256f.
  2. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 271
  3. ↑ Niels Bohr Archive: Oral History Transcript - Dr. Hilde Levi , accessed October 28, 2013
  4. ↑ Reinhard Rürup, with the participation of Michael Schüring: Fates and Careers: Memorial book for the researchers expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society by the National Socialists. Wallstein 2008, p. 257
  5. ↑ Niels Bohr Archive: Oral History Transcript - Dr. Hilde Levi , accessed October 28, 2013
  6. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 277
  7. ↑ George de Hevesy and Hilde Levi: Action of slow neutrons on rare earth elements , Nature Vol. 137, 1936, pp. 165-202
  8. ↑ Peter Nolte: Search for traces. Fellow students from 1933 . Humboldt University Berlin 2001, p. 36.
  9. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 277
  10. ↑ Finn Aaserud: Hilde Levi 1909 - 2003 (obituary) ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 28, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nba.nbi.dk
  11. ↑ Finn Aaserud: Hilde Levi 1909 - 2003 (obituary) ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 28, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nba.nbi.dk
  12. ↑ Reinhard Rürup, with the participation of Michael Schüring: Fates and Careers: Memorial book for the researchers expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society by the National Socialists. Wallstein 2008, p. 257.
  13. ↑ Finn Aaserud: Hilde Levi 1909 - 2003 (obituary) ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 28, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nba.nbi.dk
  14. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 272
  15. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 273
  16. ^ Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , p. 279
  17. ↑ Short biography Hilde Levi Humboldt University Berlin: Searching for traces (PDF; 293 kB), accessed on October 27, 2013
  18. ↑ Finn Aaserud: Hilde Levi 1909 - 2003 (obituary) ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 28, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nba.nbi.dk
  19. ↑ Reinhard Rürup, with the participation of Michael Schüring: Fates and Careers: Memorial book for the researchers expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society by the National Socialists. Wallstein 2008, p. 258.

literature

  • Silvan Schweber: Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 2012, ISBN 0-674-06587-5 , pp. 266-279
  • Peter Nolte: Searching for traces. Fellow students from 1933 . Humboldt University Berlin 2001, 36.

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Levi, Hilde
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Danish physicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2003
Place of death Copenhagen