Leonard Ornstein

Leonard Salomon Ornstein ( born November 12, 1880 in Nijmegen, † May 20, 1941 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch physicist.

Life and work

Ornstein studied with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz at Leiden University, where he received his doctorate in 1908 on the molecular applications of the Gibbs statistical mechanics. In 1914, he was the successor of Peter Debye Professor of Physics at the University of Utrecht. As head of the Physics Laboratory in Utrecht from 1922 he turned there also experimental studies, in particular intensity measurements of spectral lines, and gave the institution for the international prestige. In 1921 he was instrumental in having the head of the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven Natuurkundig Gilles Holst in the founding of the Dutch Physical Society ( Nederlandse Vereniging Natuurkundige ), whose chairman he was 1939/1940. 1931/32 he served as rector of the University of Utrecht.

After the German occupation in 1940, he was a Jew, who also was active in the Zionist movement ( 1918 to 1922 he was head of the Dutch Zionist Federation), highly endangered, refused, despite offers of friends but to leave the country. He was removed as all the Jews in the Netherlands from public office and could not even set foot in his laboratory in Utrecht. Ornstein isolated itself from the public and then died shortly afterwards.

Ornstein is known primarily for his work in statistical mechanics. According to him and George Uhlenbeck the Ornstein - Uhlenbeck process ( Ornstein, Uhlenbeck theory of Brownian On the Motion, Physical Review Bd.36, 1930, S.823 ) is named. The Ornstein - Zernike theory (1914, with Frits Zernike ) determines the spatial correlation function, for example, of molecules in liquids self-consistently via an integral equation.

In his honor, a laboratory at Utrecht University is named after him.

  • Physicist ( 20th century)
  • Rector (University of Utrecht)
  • Person of Judaism (The Netherlands )
  • Person ( Zionism )
  • Nazi victims
  • Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
  • Netherlander
  • Born in 1880
  • Died in 1941
  • Man
Hendrik Lorentz Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process Integrated Authority File
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