Hans Motz (1 October 1909 – 6 August 1987) is known for his pioneering work at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

undulator An undulator is an insertion device from high-energy physics and usually part of a larger installation, a synchrotron storage ring, or it may be a component of a free electron laser. It consists of a periodic structure of dipole magnets. These ...

s which led to the development of the wiggler and the

free-electron laser A free-electron laser (FEL) is a (fourth generation) light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An FEL functions and behaves in many ways like a laser, but instead of using stimulated emission from atomic or molecula ...

.Paolo Luchini, Hans Motz, ''Undulators and Free-electron Lasers'', Oxford University Press, 1990. Hans Motz was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and died in

Oxford, England Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

. He was survived by his widow

Lotte Motz Lotte Motz, born Lotte Edlis (August 16, 1922 – December 24, 1997) was an Austrian-American scholar, obtaining a Ph.D. in German and philology, who published four books and many scholarly papers, primarily in the fields of Germanic mythology a ...

, his daughter Anna Motz, and his protégé of many years, George Purdy. On Oct. 19, 1942, he spoke on the topic “Is a ‘Mechanistic’ View of the Universe Scientifically Tenable?” at the Socratic Club in Oxford. In 1958 he was the Donald Pollock Reader in the Department of Engineering at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and also a member of

St Catherine's Society, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Traci ...

, which became

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

in 1962, at which time he became a Fellow. In 1977 he became the only Full Professor (at that time) in the Department of Engineering. He has written a number of books, including ''The Physics of Laser Fusion'', and a book on microwave theory.Hans Motz, ''Electromagnetic Problems of Microwave Theory'' (Methuen's Monographs on physical subjects), Wiley and Sons, 1951. He is also a coauthor with Paolo Luchini of the book ''Undulators and Free-electron Lasers''. In the early 1960s he had a grant from

Rand corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finance ...

to see how much classified nuclear physics he could rediscover using an electronic computer. There was a feeling that freer access would allow the US nuclear power industry to develop more quickly. Using Oxford University's Feranti Mercury computer he was able to rediscover essentially all of the basics, and these were subsequently declassified and taught in university nuclear engineering programs.

References

1909 births 1987 deaths Scientists from Vienna Fellows of St Catherine's College, Oxford Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom {{Austria-scientist-stub