Institute for Radium Research, Vienna

The Institute for Radium Research of the Imperial Academy of Sciences was founded in Vienna in 1910 and was the first institute in the world for the study of radioactivity.

History

The foundation goes back to an initiative Karl Kupelwieser in 1908, where he presented a sum of 500,000 crowns for the construction and establishment of an Institute for radium research. Design and Planning ( Architecture: Office Community Eduard Frauenfeld & Berghof ) [note 1] took place under Franz Serafin Exner - and Stefan Meyer. The construction work in the Boltzmanngasse 3, Vienna - Alsergrund, began in 1909; on 28 October 1910, the Institute was opened by Archduke Rainer. Director Franz Serafin Exner to - was appointed, the internal management of the Institute, Stefan Meyer, chief assistant was the future Nobel laureate Victor Franz Hess.

With what attention the establishment of the Vienna Radium Institute was followed around the world, it is clear from a letter from Otto Hahn on 16 October 1908 in which he applied for the post of head of the chemical department. George de Hevesy was for his work on the application of the method of radioactive indicators on biological problems, which he had begun in collaboration with Friedrich Adolf Paneth at the Institute for Radium Research in 1943 awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Otto Hönigschmid certain here is the atomic weight of radium, and Marietta Blau developed the photographic method.

Originally the institute was devoted exclusively to the scientific study of radioactive substances, in particular of the element radium. Later it was extended the remit and renamed the " Institute for Radium Research and Nuclear Physics ".

Successor institutions

The Institute has two separate successor institutions:

• The Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (SMI, Boltzmanngasse 3, formerly Institute for Medium Energy Physics). Here the strong interaction, in cooperation with foreign research centers studied, for example, based on pionic or kaonic atoms, ie atoms in which a meson ( pion or kaon ) orbiting the nucleus in place of an electron.

• The Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, University of Vienna, which since 1996 is on the study of rare isotopes by means of accelerator mass spectrometry, with the address Währinger Straße 17 The purpose of the accelerator VERA. The Institute is concerned, apart from the teaching, including the "classic" radiocarbon dating method, with the study of nuclear reactions, the evaluation of nuclear data and the application of nuclear methods. Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics: Since 2007, the Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics to two working groups of the Department of Physics was.

Evidence

• Stefan Meyer: The history of the founding and the first decade of the Institute for Radium Research. Springer, Vienna, 1950.
• Berta Karlik, Erich Schmid: Franz Serafin Exner and his circle. A contribution to the history of physics in Austria. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-7001-0437-5.
• Robert Rosner, Brigitte Strohmaier (ed.): Marietta Blau - star of destruction. Biography of a pioneer of modern particle physics. Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-77088-9. ( Contributions to the History of Science and Research, Volume 3, ZDB - ID 1416850-9 ).