Erwin Fues
Encyclopedia
Erwin Richard Fues was a German
theoretical physicist
who made contributions to atomic physics
and molecular physics
, quantum wave mechanics
, and solid-state physics
.
and then the University of Munich. He served in the military 1914 to circa 1915, and then attended the University of Tübingen from 1916 to 1918. During 1918, he became a student of Arnold Sommerfeld
, and he received the doctor rerum naturalium from the University of Munich in 1920. From 1922 he did postgraduate work at the Stuttgart
Technische Hochschule
, under Paul Peter Ewald
, also a former student of Arnold Sommerfeld
, and he completed his Habilitation
in 1924. At Stuttgart he served as a Privatdozent
and assistant to Ewald until 1929, during which time he worked on atomic and molecular structure and spectroscopy based on the Sommerfeld-Bohr theory
. During his tenure under Ewald, he was absent during the period 1925 to 1927, when, as an International Education Board fellow, he was first an assistant to Erwin Schrödinger
at the University of Zurich
, and then a research assistant at the University of Copenhagen
at Niels Bohr’s
Institute of Theoretical Physics. At that time three major centers for the development of quantum mechanics were the Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Munich, under Arnold Sommerfeld
, the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Göttingen, under Max Born
, and the Institute of Theoretical Physics, under Niels Bohr
.
From 1929 to 1934, he served as ordinarius professor at the Hanover
Technische Hochschule
. From 1934 to 1943, he served as ordinarius professor jointly at the University of Breslau and the Breslau Technische Hochschule, after which, he went to the Vienna Technische Universität, where he remained until 1947. In that year, he went back to the Stuttgart Technische Hochschule, where the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics (Institut für Theoretische und Angewandte Physik) had been formed with two chairs. Fues became ordinarius professor for theoretical physics as well as director of the institute; the other joint director was Ulrich Dehlinger. The institute followed the tradition of both Sommerfeld and Ewald in carrying on with both theoretical and experimental research and teaching.
After the death of Sommerfeld in 1951, Fues edited and supplemented multiple editions of two volumes of Sommerfeld’s six-volume Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik.
In his career, Fues made contributions to theoretical physics
, especially in atomic structure
, quantum wave mechanics
, and solid-state physics
. In 1960, Hermann Haken took over from Fues at the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theoretical physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
who made contributions to atomic physics
Atomic physics
Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. It is primarily concerned with the arrangement of electrons around the nucleus and...
and molecular physics
Molecular physics
Molecular physics is the study of the physical properties of molecules, the chemical bonds between atoms as well as the molecular dynamics. Its most important experimental techniques are the various types of spectroscopy...
, quantum wave mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, and solid-state physics
Solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from...
.
Education and career
During the period 1912 to 1914, Fues studied at the University of BerlinHumboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
and then the University of Munich. He served in the military 1914 to circa 1915, and then attended the University of Tübingen from 1916 to 1918. During 1918, he became a student of Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
, and he received the doctor rerum naturalium from the University of Munich in 1920. From 1922 he did postgraduate work at the Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule is what an Institute of Technology used to be called in German-speaking countries, as well as in the Netherlands, before most of them changed their name to Technische Universität or Technische Universiteit in the 1970s and in the...
, under Paul Peter Ewald
Paul Peter Ewald
Paul Peter Ewald was a German-born U.S. crystallographer and physicist, a pioneer of X-ray diffraction methods.-Education:...
, also a former student of Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
, and he completed his Habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
in 1924. At Stuttgart he served as a Privatdozent
Privatdozent
Privatdozent or Private lecturer is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...
and assistant to Ewald until 1929, during which time he worked on atomic and molecular structure and spectroscopy based on the Sommerfeld-Bohr theory
Bohr model
In atomic physics, the Bohr model, introduced by Niels Bohr in 1913, depicts the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons that travel in circular orbits around the nucleus—similar in structure to the solar system, but with electrostatic forces providing attraction,...
. During his tenure under Ewald, he was absent during the period 1925 to 1927, when, as an International Education Board fellow, he was first an assistant to Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
at the University of Zurich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
, and then a research assistant at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
at Niels Bohr’s
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
Institute of Theoretical Physics. At that time three major centers for the development of quantum mechanics were the Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Munich, under Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
, the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Göttingen, under Max Born
Max Born
Max Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
, and the Institute of Theoretical Physics, under Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
.
From 1929 to 1934, he served as ordinarius professor at the Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule is what an Institute of Technology used to be called in German-speaking countries, as well as in the Netherlands, before most of them changed their name to Technische Universität or Technische Universiteit in the 1970s and in the...
. From 1934 to 1943, he served as ordinarius professor jointly at the University of Breslau and the Breslau Technische Hochschule, after which, he went to the Vienna Technische Universität, where he remained until 1947. In that year, he went back to the Stuttgart Technische Hochschule, where the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics (Institut für Theoretische und Angewandte Physik) had been formed with two chairs. Fues became ordinarius professor for theoretical physics as well as director of the institute; the other joint director was Ulrich Dehlinger. The institute followed the tradition of both Sommerfeld and Ewald in carrying on with both theoretical and experimental research and teaching.
After the death of Sommerfeld in 1951, Fues edited and supplemented multiple editions of two volumes of Sommerfeld’s six-volume Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik.
In his career, Fues made contributions to theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
, especially in atomic structure
Atomic physics
Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. It is primarily concerned with the arrangement of electrons around the nucleus and...
, quantum wave mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, and solid-state physics
Solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from...
. In 1960, Hermann Haken took over from Fues at the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physics.
Selected Literature
- Erwin Fues Vergleich zwischen den Funkenspektren der Erdalkalien und den Bogenspektren der Alkalien, Ann. D. Phys (4) 63 1-27 (1920). Received 5 February 1920, published in issue No. 17 of 16 September 1920. As cited in Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, 2001, p. 902.
- Erwin Fues Die Berechnung wasserstoffunähnlicher Spektren aus Zentralbewegungen der Elektronen. I., Z. Phys. 11 364-378 (1922). Received 2 October 1922, published in issue No. 6 of 30 November 1922. As cited in Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, 2001, p. 902.
- Erwin Fues Die Berechnung wasserstoffunähnlicher Spektren aus Zentralbewegungen der Elektronen. II., Z. Phys. 12 1-12 (1922). Received 2 October 1922, published in issue No. 1 of 9 December 1922. As cited in Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, 2001, p. 902.
Edited Books
- Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 2: Mechanik der deformierbaren Medien. 4. Auflage, ergänzt und bearbeitet von Erwin Fues. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1957)
- Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 1: Mechanik. 6. Auflage, bearbeitet und ergänzt von Erwin Fues. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1962)
- Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 1: Mechanik. 7. Auflage, bearbeitet und ergänzt von Erwin Fues. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1964)
- Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 2: Mechanik der deformierbaren Medien. 5. Auflage, ergänzt und bearbeitet von Erwin Fues. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1964)
- Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 1: Mechanik. 8. Auflage, bearbeitet und ergänzt von Erwin Fues. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1968)