Institute for Radium Research

Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics in Boltzmanngasse in Vienna

The Institute for Radium Research of the Imperial Academy of Sciences was founded in Vienna in 1910 and was the first institute in the world to research radioactivity .

history

The foundation goes back to an initiative of Karl Kupelwieser in 1908, in which he made an amount of 500,000 crowns available for the construction and establishment of an institute for radium research. Design and planning (architecture: Bürogemeinschaft Eduard Frauenfeld & Berghof ) took place under Franz-Serafin Exner and Stefan Meyer . Construction work on Waisenhausgasse, today Boltzmanngasse 3, Vienna- Alsergrund , began in 1909; on October 28, 1910, the institute was opened by Archduke Rainer . For Director Franz S. Exner was appointed, the internal management of the Institute took Stefan Meyer, chief assistant was the future Nobel Prize winner Victor Franz Hess .

A letter from Otto Hahn dated October 16, 1908, in which he applied for the position of head of the chemical department, shows the attention with which the establishment of the Vienna Radium Institute was followed worldwide . George de Hevesy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943 for his work on the application of the method of radioactive indicators to biological problems, which he had started together with Friedrich Adolf Paneth at the Institute for Radium Research. Otto Hönigschmid determined the atomic weight of radium here , and Marietta Blau developed the photographic method. The Viennese radium researcher Hilda Fonovits also worked here for a short time . Under Stefan Meyer, the institute achieved an unusually high proportion of female employees over the years.

Due to the occupation of Austria by Hitler's Germany, Stefan Meyer had to resign because of his Jewish ancestors; his long-time assistant Gustav Ortner succeeded him until the end of the war in 1945. Stefan Meyer was reinstated from 1945 until his retirement in 1947. Berta Karlik initially represented him as provisional director. She was appointed to the board in 1947 and headed the institute until 1974. That year she was succeeded by Herbert Vonach, who was in charge until 1986. After the transformation into the Institute for Medium Energy Physics in 1986, Wolfgang Breunlich was managing director. The institute participated in experiments at several international particle accelerators, including LNF ( Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati , Italy) and PSI ( Paul Scherrer Institute , Switzerland).

As early as 1956, the area of ​​responsibility was expanded and the name was changed to “Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics”. Berta Karlik , head of the institute from 1945 to 1974, received a new chair for nuclear physics at the University of Vienna in 1955, so that the institute was no longer just an institute of the Academy of Sciences, but also a university institute.

Honor

On May 28, 2015, the Institute for Radium Research, the oldest institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, received the title "Historic Site" from the European Physical Society .

Many of the scientific devices from the time the Radium Institute was founded have been exhibited in the Museum for the History of Physics in Pöllau Castle since 2010 .

Successor institutions

The institute has two separate successor institutions:

• The Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (SMI, Boltzmanngasse 3, formerly the Institute for Medium Energy Physics ). Here, in cooperation with foreign research centers, the strong interaction is investigated, for example using pionic or kaonic atoms, i.e. atoms in which a meson ( pion or kaon ) orbits the nucleus instead of an electron .

• The Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics of the University of Vienna , whose focus since 1996 on the study of rare isotopes using accelerator mass spectrometry is, with the address Währingerstraße 17. In this connection the accelerator VERA . Apart from teaching, the institute also a. with the "classic" radiocarbon dating method , with the study of nuclear reactions , the evaluation of core data and the application of nuclear methods. In 2007 the Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics became two working groups in the Faculty of Physics: Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics.

literature

• Stefan Meyer: The history of the establishment and the first decade of the Institute for Radium Research. Springer, Vienna 1950.
• Berta Karlik, Erich Schmid: Franz Serafin Exner and his circle. A contribution to the history of physics in Austria . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-7001-0437-5 .
• Joseph Braunbeck: The shining double-headed eagle. Nuclear from Austria-Hungary. Leykam, Graz 1996, ISBN 3-7011-7333-8 (for the Institute for Radium Research, see Chapter VI.)
• Robert Rosner, Brigitte Strohmaier (ed.): Marietta Blau - Stars of Destruction. Biography of a pioneer of modern particle physics . Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-77088-9 . ( Contributions to the history of science and science research , Volume 3, ZDB -ID 1416850-9 ).

Web links

• Brigitte Strohmaier, physics with a brilliant past , uni: view, the online newspaper of the University of Vienna, August 1st, 2012
• Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences: Institute for Radium Research
• Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics

Individual evidence

1. ^ Opening of the Institute for Radium Research. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 16589/1910, October 28, 1910, p. 3 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
2. ↑ Katharina Maximiliane Zelger: Stefan Meyer and the women . Retrieved March 17, 2010.
3. ↑ St. Sienell and Chr. Ottner: The archive of the Institute for Radium Research , Anzeiger der Österr. Akad. D. Sciences Dept. II, 140, 11-53 (2004)
4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated May 4, 2015 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.  
5. ↑ http://www.oeaw.ac.at/veranstaltungen-kommunikation/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungsdetails/article/ein-gedaechtnisort-der-physik/
6. ↑ Brigitte Strohmaier, Physics with a brilliant past , uni: view, the online newspaper of the University of Vienna, August 1, 2012

Remarks

1. ↑ Eduard Frauenfeld jun. In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007.
   Architect and master builder Eduard Frauenfeld jun. (1853–1910), who was seriously ill in the last years of his life and was therefore unable to attend the ceremony, died just three days after the institute opened. He was buried on November 2, 1910 in the Hinterbrühl cemetery. - See: Little Chronicle. (...) † Architect Eduard Frauenfeld. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Afternoon Gazette, No. 16593/1910, November 1, 1910, p. 11 middle. (Online at ANNO ). .