Agnes Pockels

Agnes Pockels ( born February 14, 1862 in Venice, † November 21, 1935 in Braunschweig) was a German physicist and sister of Friedrich Pockels.

Life and work

Although she had never studied, and after visiting the Municipal Secondary School for Girls in Brunswick household activities and the care of their sick parents were their main tasks, they nevertheless discovered as an autodidact important basics in the field of surface and interfacial tension. 1882, she invented the still used today " slide attachments " for the study of surfaces of liquids.

Because their research findings by German scientists were initially disregarded, they shared this in 1891 the English physicist and later Nobel prize winner John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh with who cared for their immediate release, which made immediately known Agnes Pockels and their work in Germany.

On January 27, 1932 Agnes Pockels was awarded for their pioneering research on surface chemistry as the first woman honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Braunschweig.

In Munich - Moosach the Agnes - Pockels-Bogen is named after her.

In Brunswick, the Pockelsstraße is not named after Agnes Pockels, but after Wilhelm Pockels in the area of ​​today's Technical University of Braunschweig Carolo Wilhemina.

Since 1992, the Technical University of Braunschweig gives the Agnes - Pockels medal. At the Institute of Chemistry, there is the Agnes - Pockels - Laboratory for students.