Gottfried Münzenberg (born 17 March 1940) is a German physicist. He studied physics at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen and

Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

and completed his studies with a Ph.D. at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

, Germany, in 1971. In 1976, he moved to the department of nuclear chemistry at GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, which was headed by

Peter Armbruster Peter Armbruster (born 25 July 1931) is a German physicist at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) facility in Darmstadt, Germany, and is credited with co-discovering elements 107 (bohrium), 108 ( hassium), 109 ( meitnerium), 110 ( ...

. He played a leading role in the construction of SHIP, the 'Separator of Heavy Ion Reaction Products'. He was the driving force in the discovery of the cold heavy ion fusion and the discovery of the elements bohrium ('' Z'' = 107),

hassium Hassium is a chemical element with the symbol Hs and the atomic number 108. Hassium is highly radioactive; its most stable known isotopes have half-lives of approximately ten seconds. One of its isotopes, 270Hs, has magic numbers of both protons ...

(''Z'' = 108),

meitnerium Meitnerium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Mt and atomic number 109. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element (an element not found in nature, but can be created in a laboratory). The most stable known isotope, meitnerium-2 ...

(''Z'' = 109),

darmstadtium Darmstadtium is a chemical element with the symbol Ds and atomic number 110. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element. The most stable known isotope, darmstadtium-281, has a half-life of approximately 12.7 seconds. Darmstadtium was firs ...

(''Z'' = 110),

roentgenium Roentgenium is a chemical element with the symbol Rg and atomic number 111. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature. The most stable known isotope, roentgenium-282, has a h ...

(''Z'' = 111), and

copernicium Copernicium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Cn and atomic number 112. Its known isotopes are extremely radioactive, and have only been created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of ap ...

(''Z'' = 112). In 1984, he became head of the new GSI project, the fragment separator, a project which opened new research topics, such as interactions of relativistic heavy ions with matter, production and separation of exotic nuclear beams and structure of exotic nuclei. He directed the ''Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Chemistry'' department of the GSI and was professor of physics at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stud ...

until he retired in March 2005. Gottfried Münzenberg was born into a family of Protestant ministers (father Pastor Heinz and mother Helene Münzenberg). All his life he has been deeply concerned about the philosophical and theological implications of physics. Among the rewards he received should be mentioned the Röntgen-Prize of the University of Giessen in 1983 and (together with

Sigurd Hofmann Sigurd Hofmann (15 February 1944 – 17 June 2022) was a physicist known for his work on superheavy elements. Biography Hofmann discovered his love for physics at the Max Planck High School in Groß-Umstadt, Germany, where he graduated in 19 ...

) the Otto Hahn Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1996.

References

Sources

* Gottfried Münzenberg: "Stigmatisch fokussierendes Teilchenspektrometer mit Massen- und Energiedispersion", Ph.D. thesis, Giessen, 1971 * * * 1940 births Living people People from Nordhausen, Thuringia People from the Province of Saxony 20th-century German physicists Discoverers of chemical elements University of Giessen alumni University of Innsbruck alumni Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz faculty {{Germany-physicist-stub