Johannes Stark, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
Johannes Stark (German pronunciation: [joˈhanəs ʃtaʁk] (listen), 15 April 1874 – 21 June 1957) was a German physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields". This phenomenon is known as the Stark effect.
Stark received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Munich in 1897 under the supervision of Eugen von Lommel, and served as Lommel's assistant until his appointment as a lecturer at the University of Göttingen in 1900. He was an extraordinary professor at Leibniz University Hannover from 1906 until he became a professor at RWTH Aachen University in 1909. In 1917, he became professor at the University of Greifswald, and he also worked at the University of Würzburg from 1920 to 1922.
A supporter of Adolf Hitler from 1924, Stark was one of the main figures, along with fellow Nobel laureate Philipp Lenard, in the anti-Semitic Deutsche Physik movement, which sought to remove Jewish scientists from German physics. He was appointed head of the German Research Foundation in 1933 and was president of the Reich Physical-Technical Institute from 1933 to 1939. In 1947 he was found guilty as a "Major Offender" by a denazification court.
1874Apr, 15
Johannes Stark
Choose Another Date
Events on 1874
- 28Feb
Tichborne case
One of the longest cases ever heard in an English court ends when the defendant is convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy. - 15Mar
Second Treaty of Saigon
France and Viet Nam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina. - 27May
Gert Alberts
The first group of Dorsland trekkers under the leadership of Gert Alberts leaves Pretoria. - 7Nov
Thomas Nast
A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party. - 25Nov
Panic of 1873
The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873.