James Franck

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James Franck

James Franck (26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
and Nobel laureate

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
.

ck completed his PhD in 1906 and received his venia legendi for physics in 1911, both at the University of Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities....
, where he lectured and taught until 1918, having reached the position of extraordinarius professor. After World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, in which he served and was awarded the Iron Cross

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Frederick William III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau ....
1st Class, Franck became the Head of the Physics Division of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute

The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft is a Germany entity formally known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur F?rderung der Wissenschaften e.V. ....
for Physical Chemistry.

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Encyclopedia

James Franck (26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist

Physicist

Nobel Prize

Biography

Franck completed his PhD in 1906 and received his venia legendi for physics in 1911, both at the University of Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

World War I

Iron Cross

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute

The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft is a Germany entity formally known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur F?rderung der Wissenschaften e.V. ....
for Physical Chemistry. In 1920, Franck became ordinarius professor of experimental physics and Director of the Second Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Göttingen. While at the university, he worked on quantum physics with Max Born

Max Born

Max Born was a Germany physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s....
, who was Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics.

In 1925, Franck received the Nobel Prize in Physics

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine....
, mostly for his work in 1912-1914 which included the Franck-Hertz experiment

Franck-Hertz experiment

The Franck-Hertz experiment was a physics experiment that provided support for the Bohr model of the atom, a precursor to quantum mechanics. In 1914, the German physicists James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz sought to experimentally probe the energy levels of the atom....
, an important confirmation of the Bohr model

Bohr model

In atomic physics, the Bohr model created by Niels Bohr depicts the atom as a small, positively charged atomic nucleus surrounded by electrons that travel in circular orbits around the nucleus—similar in structure to the solar system, but with electrostatic forces providing attraction, rather than gravity....
of the atom

Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
.

In 1933, after the Nazis

Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
came to power, he left his post in Germany and continued his research in the United States, first at the Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Hopkins or JHU, is a private university research university located in Baltimore, Maryland, Maryland, United States....
in Baltimore

Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
and then, after a year in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
, in Chicago. This is where he became involved in the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the project to develop the first atomic weapon during World War II; involving the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada....
during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
; he was Director of the Chemistry Division of the Metallurgical Laboratory

Metallurgical Laboratory

The Metallurgical Laboratory or "Met Lab" at the University of Chicago was part of the World War II?era Manhattan Project, created by the United States to develop an Nuclear weapon....
at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
. He was also the chairman of the Committee on Political and Social Problems regarding the atomic bomb; the committee consisted of himself and other scientists at the Met Lab, including Donald J. Hughes, J. J. Nickson

J. J. Nickson

James Joseph Nickson, MD was an American physician and radiation oncologist.Education: BS University of Washington MD Johns Hopkins University ....
, Eugene Rabinowitch

Eugene Rabinowitch

Eugene Rabinowitch was a Russian-born United States biophysicist who is best known for his work in relation to nuclear weapons, especially as a co-author of the Franck Report and a co-founder in 1945 of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a global security and public policy magazine, which he edited until his death....
, Glenn T. Seaborg

Glenn T. Seaborg

Glenn Theodore Seaborg was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranic element," contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, developed the actinide concept and was the first to propose the actinide series which led to the current arrangement of the Perio...
, J. C. Stearns and Leo Szilard

Leó Szilárd

Le? Szil?rd was a Hungary-United States physicist who conceived the nuclear chain reaction and worked on the Manhattan Project. He was born in Budapest under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and died in La Jolla, California, California....
. The committee is most known for the compilation of the Franck Report

Franck Report

The Franck Report of June 1945, named for James Franck, spoke about the impossibility to keep the U.S. atomic discoveries secret indefinitely. It predicted a nuclear arms race, forcing the United States to develop nuclear armaments at such a pace that no other nation would think of attacking first from fear of overwhelming retaliation....
, finished on June 11, 1945, which was a summary of the problems regarding the military application of the atomic bomb.

When Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
invaded Denmark

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weser?bung was the code name for Nazi Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during World War II and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign....
in World War II

World War II

George de Hevesy

Georg Karl von Hevesy was a Hungary Radiochemistry and Nobel laureate, recognised in 1943 for his key role in the development of the tracer method where radioactive tracers are used to study chemical processes such as in the metabolism of animals....
dissolved the gold Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

Max von Laue

Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals....
and James Franck in aqua regia

Aqua regia

Aqua regia is a highly corrosive, fuming yellow or red solution. The mixture is formed by freshly mixing concentrated nitric acid and concentrated hydrochloric acid, usually in a volumetric ratio of 1:3 respectively....
to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute

Niels Bohr Institute

The Niels Bohr Institute is a research institute at the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics....
. After the war, he returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The Nobel Society then recast the Nobel Prizes using the original gold.

In 1946 Franck married Hertha Sponer

Hertha Sponer

Hertha Sponer was a Germany physicist and chemist with extensive contributions to modern quantum mechanics and molecular physics and was the first woman on the physics faculty of Duke University....
, his former assistant in Göttingen. He died suddenly in 1964 while visiting Göttingen.

Honours and awards

1925 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine....
The award was shared with Gustav Ludwig Hertz
Gustav Ludwig Hertz

Gustav Ludwig Hertz was a German experimental physicist and Nobel Prize winner, and a nephew of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz....
, and it was for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of electrons on atoms.
1951 Max Planck Medaille
Max Planck medal

The Max Planck medal is an award for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. It is awarded annually by the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft ....
der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft
1953 Honorary citizen of Göttingen
1955 Rumford Medal
Rumford Medal

The Rumford Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternating year for "an outstandingly important recent discovery in the field of thermal or optical properties of matter made by a scientist working in Europe"....
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences - For his work on photosynthesis.
1964 Elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London, for his contribution to the understanding of exchanges of energy in electron collisions, to the interpretation of molecular spectra, and to problems of photosynthesis.

External links

biography, on the Nobel website
– American Philosophical Society (Bio appears after Sommerfeld's)

James Franck

Biography

Honours and awards

See also

External links