Wolfgang Paul (physicist)

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Wolfgang Paul (born August 10, 1913 in Lorenzkirch , Saxony , † December 7, 1993 in Bonn ) was a German physicist and Nobel Prize winner for physics .

Life

He received his doctorate in 1939 at the Technical University of Berlin and was from 1937 to 1942 research assistant to Hans Kopfermann at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel . After he was appointed to the Georg-August University in Göttingen , Paul followed his academic teacher and completed his habilitation in Göttingen in 1944 , where he finally worked as a professor from 1944 to 1952.

In 1952 he followed a call to the University of Bonn , where he taught until 1981 and was director of the Physics Institute.

From 1964 to 1967 he was director of the physics department at CERN and from 1970 to 1973 chairman of the board of directors at DESY ( Hamburg ). In 1979 Paul was elected third President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; he held this office for ten years. In 1982 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , followed in 1983 as a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

In 1957 Wolfgang Paul was one of the 18 signatories of the Göttingen Declaration against the planned nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr.

family

From his first marriage to Liselotte Paul , née Hirsche , Paul had four children: Jutta, Regine, Stephan and Lorenz. He had been married to Doris Walch-Paul , a lecturer in medieval literature, since 1979 . Stephan Paul is professor of experimental physics at the Technical University of Munich, Lorenz Paul is professor of physics at the University of Wuppertal.

research

Wolfgang Paul is one of the pioneers in particle physics . His work included the areas of atomic and molecular beams, mass spectrometry, isotope separation, electron scattering in matter, radiation biology, dosimetry and electron beam therapy in medicine. In 1953 he and H. Steinwedel developed the quadrupole mass filter (Paulsche's mass filter) for mass spectrometric measurements. The Paul trap , an ion trap he developed, is named after him.

Awards

Designations

Explanation board at the Wolfgang Paul lecture hall of the University of Bonn
The Wolfgang-Paul-Allee in Bonn-Poppelsdorf
  • Wolfgang Paul is the namesake of the Wolfgang Paul Study Prize (German Society for Mass Spectrometry) and the Wolfgang Paul Prize , one of the most highly endowed science awards in Germany, awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) .
  • The Wolfgang Paul Medal of the University of Bonn is awarded both to scientists and to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to this university in an ideal or material way.
  • The large physics lecture hall at the University of Bonn, which he was involved in planning, was named after him.
  • The Wolfgang Paul lectures there are financed from his estate .
  • Wolfgang-Paul-Allee in Bonn-Poppelsdorf bears his name, it is not far from the Physics Institute and other facilities of the University of Bonn.

exhibition

A special exhibition on the pioneer of particle physics was on view at the Deutsches Museum Bonn until August 24, 2014 . The title of the exhibition was "Wolfgang Paul - The Particle Catcher". His life and work were presented chronologically. Parts of the first European particle accelerator based on his work were also exhibited . The 500 MeV accelerator was in operation in Bonn from the late 1950s to 1984 and is considered the forerunner of DESY in Hamburg .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gottfried Müller: Of Wolfgang Paul's connection with the village of Lorenzkirch on the Elbe. In: Gottfried Müller (Ed.): Festschrift Wolfgang Paul. Markkleeberg 2008. pp. 24-30.
  2. ^ H. Ehrenberg: Wolfgang Paul . In: Physical sheets . Volume 45, Issue 11. Wiley, Weinheim 1989, pp. 425-426, p. 425 .
  3. ^ Wolfgang Paul: Biographical. The Nobel Foundation, accessed November 29, 2018 .
  4. ^ The Göttingen Declaration 1957 at uni-goettingen.de
  5. ↑ Astropage.eu on Tour: The German Museum Bonn Astropage.eu December 19, 2013, accessed December 23, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Paul, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and Nobel laureate for physics
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Lorenzkirch , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH 7th December 1993
Place of death Bonn