Jan Peter Toennies

Jan Peter Toennies (born May 3, 1930 in Philadelphia ) is a German-American physicist and chemist who was director at the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research in Göttingen .

biography

Toennies is the son of German immigrants ( Gerrit Toennies ) and grandson of the sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies . He grew up in Lower Merion , Pennsylvania . He studied at Amherst College (bachelor's degree in 1952) and Brown University , where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1957. In 1953/54 he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Göttingen and from 1957 as a post-doc with a scholarship from the DFG with Wolfgang Paul at the University of Bonn , whose scientific assistant he was. In 1965 he completed his habilitation there and became a private lecturer. From 1965 to 1974 he was also visiting professor for physical chemistry at the University of Gothenburg .

From 1969 he was at the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research in Göttingen, whose orientation towards molecular physics he initiated in 1969 and whose director he was until 1998. After that, he continued to lead the experimental molecular beam group as managing director until 2004. During this time, the institute was also realigned to nonlinear dynamics and is now called the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization . From 1971 he was also a professor in Göttingen (and honorary professor in Bonn).

Toennies dealt with molecular and solid state physics, for example molecular beam experiments, scattering of solid surfaces, expansion experiments with liquid helium, study of clusters of molecules (including diffraction experiments) and nanodroplets. Among other things, his working group was able to demonstrate the superfluidity in hydrogen clusters.

Since 1990 he has been a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , whose Physics Prize he received in 1964. In 1992 he and Giorgio Benedek received the Max Planck Research Prize . He has been a member of the Leopoldina since 1993 . In 2002 he received the Stern-Gerlach Medal and in 2006 the Benjamin Franklin Medal in physics. He holds honorary doctorates from Amherst College and the University of Gothenburg.

Toennies has been married since 1966 and has two daughters.

Fonts

• EF Greene, J. Peter Toennies: Chemical reactions in shock waves , Dr. Dietrich Steinkopff Verlag, Darmstadt, 1959
• EF Greene, J. Peter Toennies: Chemical Reactions in Shock Waves , Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd. London, 1964
• Zdenek Herman: Jan Peter Toennies on his 65th birthday , reports from the Bunsenges. Phys. Chem., Vol. 99, 1995, pp. 781-782
• J. Peter Toennies: Serendipitous meanderings and adventures with molecular beams , Annual Rev. Phys. Chem., Vol. 55, 2004, pp. 1-33
• G. Benedek, J. Peter Toennies: Atomic Scale Dynamics at Surfaces: Theory and Experimental Studies with Helium Atom Scattering , Springer, Heidelberg, 2018

literature

• Special-Issue: J. Peter Toennies Festschrift, J. Phys. Chem. A 115 (25), 2011
  • Darin Bretislav Friedrich: A Toast to Jan Peter Toennies , J. Peter Toennies: Autobiography of Jan Peter Toennies , List of Students, Postdocs, and Collaborators, Curriculum Vitae, List of Publications

Web links

• Literature by and about Jan Peter Toennies in the catalog of the German National Library
• CV

References

1. ^ Growing clusters, Pro Physik 2004
2. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. J. Peter Toennies at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 22, 2016.