Francis Simon

Franz Eugen Simon (later in the United Kingdom: Sir Francis Simon CBE, born July 2, 1893 in Berlin, † October 31, 1956 in Oxford ) was a German - British physical chemist and physicist who is the method of separating isotopes of uranium -235 developed and made ​​a substantial contribution to the development of the first atomic bomb.

Background and Career

Simon was born into a German - Jewish family in Berlin. In World War I he served as a soldier and was the award of the Iron Cross 1st class. He then studied at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University ( now Humboldt University of Berlin ) and a doctorate in Walther Nernst about a topic from the area of ​​low temperature physics. He was forced in 1933 to emigrate to the UK, with the advent of National Socialism, where he called himself instead of " Franz Eugen " " Francis ". There he worked in the laboratory of Frederick Lindemann at the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford and mainly dealt with problems in the field of thermodynamics and low-temperature physics, such as the solidification of helium.

In 1940 he was considered one of the world's top experts in the field of gas diffusion, instructed by the MAUD Committee to examine the feasibility of enrichment of the uranium isotope U235 by gaseous diffusion. The technical basis for this he worked together with his collaborator Nicholas Kurti. The experience gained from this went later in the Manhattan Project.

Honors

Simon in 1941 was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, the Rumford Medal awarded him in 1948. In 1946 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1955 he was knighted.