Hilde Levi

Hilde Levi ( born May 9, 1909 in Frankfurt am Main, † July 26, 2003 in Copenhagen, Denmark) was a German - Danish physicist. She was a scientific pioneer of autoradiography and the radiocarbon method and its application. After her retirement she devoted herself to the history of science, especially the legacy of Nobel laureate George de Hevesy.

Early years and education

Hilde Levi was born on May 9, 1909 in Frankfurt am Main, the daughter of Adolf Levi, director of the Frankfurter Metallgesellschaft and his wife Clara (nee Rice ). Having grown up in an assimilated Jewish family, the artistically and scientifically gifted Hilde Levi attended a high school in Frankfurt. After dropping the final exams at the Victoria School in 1928, Hilde was initially sent by their parents for a short time to England. In the spring of 1929, she began with the physics and chemistry studies in Munich, where she was instructed by Arnold Sommerfeld, Kasimir Fajans and Otto Heinrich Wieland. For her doctoral work, she moved in 1931 to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Berlin- Dahlem. Here she completed her doctorate in 1934, scientifically supervised by Max von Laue, Peter Pringsheim, Fritz Haber and her doctor father Hans Beutler on the spectra of the alkali halide vapors.

Emigration

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in the spring of 1933 worsened especially after the enforcement of the Aryan paragraph the working and living conditions of Jewish scientists at universities and research institutions. Immediately after successfully passing his PhD exam emigrated Hilde Levi, as well as many of their colleagues abroad. Hilde Levi doctoral certificate was handed months after testing her brother Edwin. Through the mediation of the International Federation of University Women of the Danish section they could compete in Copenhagen a position at the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics as a research assistant of James Franck, who has already emigrated in 1933 from Göttingen.

Scientific research after 1934

Your stay at the Niels Bohr Institute was initially financed by her father and later denied by grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rask - Ørstadt funds. Levi worked as an assistant to Franck at studies of the fluorescence of chlorophyll. Following the appointment of James Franck at the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore 1935 Hilde Levi scientific, on the recommendation of Niels Bohr 's assistant George de Hevesy, who had also emigrated from Germany in 1934. In Copenhagen, Hilde Levi built in 1935 for a user manual of Lise Meitner, a test facility for the production of neutrons, which formed the basis for a series of scientific experiments. Both scientists worked on the irradiation of rare earths with neutrons. They discovered characteristic decay times of the individual elements and developed neutron activation analysis. In December 1938, Hilde Levi had to give up her German passport at the embassy and at the same time her doctorate without giving reasons, from the University of Berlin stripped. In Copenhagen, she worked with de Hevesy and other scientists in the investigation of the metabolism of essential elements, such as the phosphorus metabolism of bone and thus provided an important basis for the development of nuclear medicine. When Denmark was occupied on 9 April 1940 by the German Wehrmacht, they initially remained in Copenhagen and was now working at the Carlsberg Institute. 1943 you were threatened with deportation and she had to flee together with the personal secretary Niels Bohr, Sophie Hellmann and two of the sons of Niels Bohr on the Sound to Sweden in September. In Stockholm she worked at the Wenner -Gren Institute for Experimental Biology under John Runnstrom until their return to Copenhagen after the end of World War II. She continued her radio biochemical research on Zoophysiologischen Institute, University of Copenhagen, which was led by a close friend of George de Hevesy, the Nobel laureate August Krogh, continued. On a research trip to the U.S. 1947/48 they became familiar with the radiocarbon method to determine the age of dead organic matter. Back in Copenhagen, she developed together with the Danish National Museum, the first measuring device for C14 - datings in Europe and growth in the following years, internationally recognized scientific results. With the development of its measurement arrangement in the early 1950s, the age of the Grauballe 's was determined.

During their stay in the U.S., it was also familiar with the technique of autoradiography. She sat the method also on the Finsen Institute in Copenhagen to research the side effects of the use of Thorotrast.

Since 1960, Hilde Levi taught as a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. In the years 1954 to 1971, she advised the Danish health authorities in matters relating to radiation protection.

History of science work

In 1947 she published a short biographical sketch of Lise Meitner, who she had known since her Berlin Promotion time and had met later in Sweden. After her retirement in 1979, was dedicated to Hilde Levi reinforced history of science topics. They earned great merit in the construction of the Niels Bohr Archive and was conceptually involved in an exhibition on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 1985 in Copenhagen. Another focus of her scientific historical work was the work-up of scientific and personal estate of her longtime researcher Kollegens George de Hevesy. In 1985 she wrote the biographical work of George de Hevesy, Life and Work.

Private life

Hilde Levi was never married. She was betrothed since September 1934 with the physicist Hans Bethe, with whom she had been friends for 9 years. Due to reservations of his mother before a marriage to a Jewess, Bethe broke off the engagement in December 1934 a few days before the planned wedding. This behavior triggered at Levis colleague Niels Bohr and James Franck largest disapproval and lifelong reservations about Bethe.

In 2001, Hilde Levi was invited by the Humboldt University in a meeting of former scientists, who had been fired after 1933 and had to emigrate. On this occasion a publication was published with a short biography Hilde Levi.

His final years were spent in a nursing home in Hellerup near Copenhagen. She died at the age of 94 years on 26 June 2003 in Copenhagen.

Awards

In 1975, Hilde Levi was awarded the golden medal of the George -de- Hevesy Foundation.

Publications

• About the spectra of the alkali halide vapors, Dissertation 71 S., Frankfurt am Main: 1934
• In collaboration with George de Hevesy: Action of slow neutrons on rare earth elements, Nature, Vol 137, 1936, pp. 165-202
• In collaboration with George de Hevesy: Artificial radioactivity of dysprosium and other rare earth elements, Nature, Vol 136, 1935, pp. 83-120
• In collaboration with George de Hevesy: Artificial activity of hafnium and someother elements, Matematisk - fysiske meddelelser; 15.11 Munsksgaard København 1938, 18 pp.
• Note on the permeability of red blood corpuscles to potassium, Matematisk - fysiske meddelelser, 23:10, Munsksgaard København 1945, 9 pp.
• The Action of honey bee venom - on red corpuscles, Especially On Their ionic permeability, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1945 [ Ed ] 1946
• In collaboration with AW Rogers: On the quantitative evaluation of auto radiograms, Matematisk - fysiske meddelelser, 33.11, Munsksgaard København 1963, 50 pp.
• In collaboration with EC Anderson: Some problems in radiocarbon dating, Matematisk - fysiske meddelelser, 27.6, Munsksgaard København 1952, 22 pp.
• George de Hevesy, Life and Work, Taylor & Francis, 1985, ISBN 978-0-85274-555-7