Karl A. Wolf

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Karl August Wolf (born January 21, 1904 in Siebeldingen , Palatinate ; † August 4, 1976 in Heidelberg ) was a German physicist who mainly dealt with polymer physics.

Life

Karl August Wolf was born as the son of the winery owner Karl Wolf and his wife Louise Wolf nee. Thouvenin born. He attended the grammar school in Landau in the Palatinate and studied from 1922 to 1927 at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , where Arnold Sommerfeld , Oskar Perron , Richard Willstätter and Heinrich Otto Wieland were among his teachers and in 1927 he received his doctorate summa cum laude from Wilhelm Wien has been. The topic of his dissertation was the pressure dependence of the dielectric constant of gases and vapors. He then worked at BASF (initially as an employee of Hermann Mark ), where he headed the measurement and testing department in Ludwigshafen from 1948, which he led to international renown and which dealt in particular with measurement and testing techniques for plastics. In 1964 he became head of the nuclear research department in the Federal Ministry of Research , but was only able to perform this task for one year for health reasons. Since 1957 he had been honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg , where he also lived.

In 1952/53 and 1955 (when he stepped in after Richard Becker's premature death ) he was President of the German Physical Society . This reflects his commitment to the scientific organization immediately after the Second World War. Together with Walther Bothe and Erich Regener, he set up the physical society in Baden, Württemberg and the Palatinate and operated the merger of the German physical societies. During his presidency at the DPG, the resumption of international contacts of the DPG and the establishment of their specialist bodies fell. He was also a co-founder of the Association of German Scientists and campaigned for social responsibility in research. He was also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences .

In 1931 he married Hilde Koch, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

Fonts

  • Editor with Rudolf Nitsche: Structure and physical behavior of plastics. Volume 1, Springer Verlag, 1962, Volume 2 with Paul Nowak: Practical plastic test. Springer Verlag, 1961.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Karl August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Siebeldingen , Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1976
Place of death Heidelberg