Wolfgang Gentner
Wolfgang Gentner ( born July 23, 1906 in Frankfurt am Main; † 4 September 1980 in Heidelberg ) was a German physicist.
Gentner became known. Primarily by work on nuclear physics, in particular for nuclear photo effect and gamma radiation In addition, significant research services to biophysics, Archaeometry and cosmochemistry. He developed with the potassium - argon method, a technique for age determination of minerals and meteorites, here especially for tektites. Together with Walther Bothe and Heinz Maier- Leibnitz, he developed the "Atlas of typical cloud chamber pictures".
Life
Wolfgang Gentner began his studies of physics in Erlangen, but soon moved back to his hometown at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and received his doctorate in 1930 at Friedrich Dessauer. From 1932 to 1935 he worked - as the first German since 1912 - at the Radium Institute by Marie Curie at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1935 he returned to Germany at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research (now the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research ) in Heidelberg with the group around Walther Bothe.
Since the sources of natural gamma radiation, such as radium, were not energetic enough for the experiments for the excitation of resonances in atomic nuclei, was built in the Institute of the plan to build an artificial radiation source with an electrostatic accelerator, powered by a Van de Graaff generator. The Gentner quickly realized generator and the radiation source proved to be extremely fruitful tool, and shortly after commissioning extensive data could be collected on the nuclear photo effect. The measured cross sections were here several orders of magnitude above the predictions of Hans Bethe and George Placzek ( 1905-1955 ).
Gentner habilitated in 1937 with the subject, the absorption, scattering, and secondary radiation hard gamma - rays at the Faculty of Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. 1938 could power the accelerator of the Van de Graaf generator can be increased to a mega electron volts. Also finally got the expected funding commitments for the project to build a cyclotron. Gentner an intern in 1939 at the University of Berkeley, to collect information about the optimal design of the cyclotron, in contrast to other voices that wanted to build a "German " cyclotron in close cooperation with Siemens. At this time he also came into contact with Robert Oppenheimer.
When war broke Gentner was assigned to the uranium project from the Army Ordnance Department and uses his MeV accelerator as a neutron source. After the conquest of France Gentner was sent to Paris to take there almost finished cyclotron in operation. This happened in February 1942 with a capacity of 7 MeV in the acceleration of deuterons. After a denunciation of Paris dismissed, he headed the further construction of the Heidelberg cyclotron, which was completed on June 2, 1944. Gentner was from 1946 to 1958 professor at the Albert -Ludwigs- University in Freiburg im Breisgau, then until his retirement in Heidelberg. From 1955 to 1959 he served as director of the research center " Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire " ( CERN) in Geneva, and from 1958 to 1973 he founded the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg.
In 1979 he was awarded the Otto Hahn Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main.
Works
- Discussions with Frédéric Joliot- Curie in occupied Paris from 1940 to 1942. Heidelberg: Max Planck Inst. of Nuclear Physics, 1980.