Josef-Maria Jauch

Josef-Maria Jauch (born September 20, 1914 in Lucerne ; † August 30, 1974 in Geneva ) was a Swiss theoretical physicist.

Jauch studied mathematics and physics at the ETH Zurich , where he received his diploma in 1938. In the summer semester of 1940 he was Wolfgang Pauli's assistant . In 1940 he received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota with Edward Lee Hill (On Contact Transformations and Group Theory in Quantum Mechanical Problems) . In his dissertation he was the first to deal with dynamic symmetry groups in quantum mechanics (including SU (3) ). After completing his doctorate, he returned to ETH as an assistant to Gregor Wentzel , but returned to the USA in 1942.

From 1943 to 1945 he was an assistant professor at Princeton University and from 1946 first as an assistant professor and then until 1959 professor at the University of Iowa . Jauch was at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva in the early 1950s, and he went back a decade later. From 1960 he was professor of theoretical physics at the University of Geneva , where he headed the theoretical physics department until 1974. Among other things, he dealt with the (mathematical) basics of quantum mechanics. He is known for his book Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and his textbook on quantum electrodynamics with Fritz Rohrlich .

Jauch was a co-founder of the European Physical Society . From 1962 until his death he was a member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation .

He was married twice. His PhD students include Gérard Emch , Constantin Piron and Kenneth Watson . In 1946 he received US citizenship.

literature

Obituary in Physics Today, December 1974

Fonts

Josef-Maria Jauch, Fritz Rohrlich: The theory of photons and electrons: the relativistic quantum field theory of charged particles with spin one-half. Addison-Wesley, Cambridge 1955. 2nd edition, Springer, New York 1976.
The Reality of Quanta: A Contemporary Galilean Dialogue. Hanser, Munich 1973.
Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Addison-Wesley, Reading 1968.

Web links

Literature by and about Josef-Maria Jauch in the catalog of the German National Library
Philip Rieder: Jauch, Josef-Maria. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Photo on page with Pauli's assistant

Individual evidence

^ Andrew Whitaker: John Stewart Bell and Twentieth-Century Physics: Vision and Integrity . Oxford University Press , 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-874299-9 , pp. 188 (English, cern.ch ).

personal data
SURNAME	Jauch, Josef-Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss theoretical physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	September 20, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH	August 30, 1974
Place of death	Geneva

[oxf-1] Andrew Whitaker: John Stewart Bell and Twentieth-Century Physics: Vision and Integrity . Oxford University Press , 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-874299-9 , pp. 188 (English, cern.ch ).