Wilhelm Lenz (February 8, 1888 in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
– April 30, 1957 in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
) was a German
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
, most notable for his invention of the
Ising model
The Ising model () (or Lenz-Ising model or Ising-Lenz model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that represent ...
and for his application of the
Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector
In classical mechanics, the Laplace–Runge–Lenz (LRL) vector is a vector used chiefly to describe the shape and orientation of the orbit of one astronomical body around another, such as a binary star or a planet revolving around a star. For t ...
to the
old quantum mechanical treatment of
hydrogen-like atom
A hydrogen-like atom (or hydrogenic atom) is any atom or ion with a single valence electron. These atoms are isoelectronic with hydrogen. Examples of hydrogen-like atoms include, but are not limited to, hydrogen itself, all alkali metals such a ...
s.
Biography
In 1906, Lenz graduated from the Klinger-Oberralschule, a non-classical secondary school in Frankfurt, and went to study mathematics and physics at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
. From 1908 to 1911, Lenz studied under
Arnold Sommerfeld, at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
, and he was granted his doctorate on March 2, 1911. Upon graduation, he stayed on at the University, became Sommerfeld’s assistant on April 1, 1911, and he completed his
Habilitation on February 20, 1914, becoming a
Privatdozent on April 4, 1914. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he served as a radio operator in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
and was awarded the
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...
Second Class in 1916. From September 30, 1920, he was again an assistant to Sommerfeld at the University of Munich’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, and he was appointed to the title and rank of extraordinarius professor at the University, on November 11, 1920. On December 1, 1920 he became an extraordinarius professor at the
University of Rostock
The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...
. From 1921, until his retirement in 1956, he was at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
, as Ordinarius Professor of Theoretical Physics and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics.
[Lenz](_blank)
– ETH Zurich
– Litten
The formation of the new chair and institute for theoretical physics at Hamburg was a result of advances being made in Germany on
atomic physics and
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...
and the personal intervention of Sommerfeld, who helped many of his students get such professorships.
At Hamburg, Lenz trained
Ernst Ising
Ernst Ising (; May 10, 1900 in Cologne, Germany – May 11, 1998 in Peoria, Illinois, USA) was a German physicist, who is best remembered for the development of the Ising model. He was a professor of physics at Bradley University until his r ...
and
J. Hans D. Jensen
Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen (; 25 June 1907 – 11 February 1973) was a German nuclear physicist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, known as the Uranium Club, where he contributed to the separation of uranium is ...
; his assistants there included
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics ...
Pascual Jordan
Ernst Pascual Jordan (; 18 October 1902 – 31 July 1980) was a German theoretical and mathematical physicist who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. He contributed much to the mathematical form of matri ...
, and
Albrecht Unsöld.
[Unsöld was a former doctoral student of Sommerfeld, who got his degree in 1927. Se]
Unsöld
– Mathematics Genealogy Project. Together with Pauli and
Otto Stern
:''Otto Stern was also the pen name of German women's rights activist Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1895)''.
Otto Stern (; 17 February 1888 – 17 August 1969) was a German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most n ...
, Lenz built up the Institute into an international center for nuclear physics. They maintained close scientific and personal exchanges with the institutes for theoretical physics at the Universities in Munich (Sommerfeld), Göttingen (
Max Born), and
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...
).
When Lenz retired in 1956 he was succeeded by
Harry Lehmann
Harry Lehmann (21 March 1924 in Güstrow22 November 1998 in Hamburg) was a German physicist.
Biography
Lehmann studied physics at Rostock and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
In 1952 he worked at the Max-Planck-Institut in Göttingen, and ...
.
Books
*Wilhelm Lenz ''Einführungsmathematik für Physiker'' (Verlagsanstalt Wolfenbüttel, 1947)
Notes
References
*
Mehra, Jagdish, and
Helmut Rechenberg
Helmut Rechenberg (born November 6, 1937, in Berlin; died November 10, 2016, in Munich) was a German physicist and science historian.
Rechenberg studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Munich and graduated in 1964. At Mun ...
''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 1 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900 – 1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties. ''(Springer, 2001)
*Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg ''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 2 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900 – 1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties.'' (Springer, 2001)
*Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg ''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 5 Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 1 Schrödinger in Vienna and Zurich 1887–1925.'' (Springer, 2001)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, Wilhelm
Scientists from Frankfurt
20th-century German physicists
1888 births
1957 deaths
University of Hamburg faculty
University of Rostock faculty
University of Göttingen alumni
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni