Benjamin Abeles (23 June 1925 – 14 December 2020) was an Austrian-Czech physicist whose research in the 1960s in the US on

germanium Germanium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid or a nonmetal in the carbon group that is chemically ...

–

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

s led to the technology used to power space probes such as the ''Voyager'' spacecraft. He grew up in Austria and Czechoslovakia and arrived in the UK in 1939 on one of the ''

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' missions. He completed his education after the war in Czechoslovakia and Israel (from 1949), obtaining a doctorate in physics. He then lived and worked as a research physicist in the US and retired in 1995. His honours include the 1979

Stuart Ballantine Medal {{Refimprove, date=February 2018 The Stuart Ballantine Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after the US inventor Stuart Ballantine. Laureates *1947 - Ge ...

and his induction into the

New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame The New Jersey Inventor's Hall of Fame was established in 1987 to honor individuals and corporations in New Jersey for their inventions. Award recipients are recognized at the annual Award Banquet Dinner. The New Jersey Inventors Hall of ...

(1991).

Early life and education

Born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1925, Abeles lived in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

from 1934. In July 1939, aged 14, he was one of hundreds of Jewish children brought from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

to London through the efforts of British humanitarian

Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas George Winton (; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jews, Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to History of the Jews ...

, an example of the various ''

'' missions that saved many such children from the impending dangers of World War II and the Holocaust. His parents and older sister were later deported and murdered by the Nazis. At age 15, he worked as a waiter and took correspondence courses in English, mathematics, physics and chemistry. When he was 18, Abeles served as a mechanic in the war as part of

No. 311 Squadron RAF No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF was a Demographics of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-manned bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force in the World War II, Second World War. It was the RAF's only Czechoslovak-manned medium bomber, medium and heav ...

. He then returned to Czechoslovakia after the war and studied at

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

and

Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) () is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Central Europe. It is also the oldest non-military technical universi ...

, before moving to Israel in 1949 to study for his physics doctorate in Jerusalem. His thesis, published in 1955, was titled 'The Galvanomagnetic Effects in Bismuth and Bi–Sn Alloys'.

Career

Following the award of his PhD, Abeles worked in Israel on germanium electronics before moving to the United States to carry out research in Princeton for the

Radio Corporation of America RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

. During his career, Abeles worked at both the

David Sarnoff Research Center Sarnoff Corporation was a research-and-development company specializing in vision, video, and semiconductor technology. It was named for David Sarnoff, the longtime leader of RCA and NBC, and had headquarters in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, ...

and at Exxon Research and Engineering in Annandale, New Jersey. Working with George D. Cody in the 1960s, Abeles developed germanium–silicon alloys that were used in the development of the

radioisotope thermoelectric generator A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), or radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the Decay heat, heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material i ...

s used to power spacecraft and probes engaged in long voyages of

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

. Abeles also worked as a professor at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Recognition and later life

For their work, Abeles and Cody received the 1979

(Engineering) from the Franklin Institute, and were inducted into the

in 1991. Abeles's 65th birthday in 1990 was marked by a symposium in his honour: 'Physical Phenomena in Granular Materials'. He retired in 1995, and subsequently lived predominantly in the UK. Abeles died in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, England on 14 December 2020, aged 95.Zemřel fyzik Bedřich Abeles. Sloužil v RAF, vynalezl pohon pro Voyager

References

External links

'Nicky's Family' reveals legacy of human compassion
review of documentary on the ''

kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' children including Abeles (ceskapozice.cz)
Czech-language interview with Abeles in 2011
(lidovky.cz) {{DEFAULTSORT:Abeles, Benjamin 1925 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American physicists 20th-century Austrian Jews 21st-century Austrian Jews Scientists from Vienna Jewish American physicists Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Kindertransport refugees Royal Air Force airmen American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Austrian emigrants to Czechoslovakia Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Charles University alumni Czech Technical University in Prague alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Czechoslovak expatriates in the United Kingdom