Guido Beck (29 August 1903 – 21 October 1988) was an Argentine

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 ...

of German Bohemian origin, who was born in

Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...

and died in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. He discovered all cylindrically symmetric nonrotating vacuum solutions in general relativity, which is the first instance of exactly solved gravitational waves.

Biography

Beck studied physics 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. ...

and received his doctorate in 1925, under Hans Thirring. He worked in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

in 1928 as an assistant to

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

. A combination of the troubled political climate of Europe in the 1930s, his own restlessness, and the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

persecutions in Germany, made the Jewish-born Beck a traveler in those years. Until 1935 he worked in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

with Ernest Rutherford,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

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 ...

, United States and Japan. In 1935, Beck was invited to work in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

by Head of the Institute of Physics, Odessa University Yelpidifor Anempodistovich Kirillov. At the

Odessa University The Odesa I.I.Mechnykov National University (), often referred to as Odesa National University ( ONU, ), located in Odesa, Ukraine, is one of that country's major state-sponsored universities, named after the scientist Élie Metchnikoff (1845- ...

Beck was head of the Department of Theoretical Physics and gave a course of theoretical physics in German; his lectures were simultaneously translated into Ukrainian by his assistant Yu.G. Vekshtein. In 1936–1937 Beck was head of the department of theoretical mechanics at the Institute of Water Transport Engineers in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

. Four of his Odessa students – VV Malyarov, MM Alperin, GV Skrotskii and PE Nemirovsky – became professors in Odessa and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In 1937, Guido Beck moved to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he was imprisoned when World War II broke out. In 1941, he fled to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. From 1942 to 1943 he was a guest professor at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

and the University of Oporto. In 1943 he emigrated to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. In Argentina, he was instrumental in training several Argentine physicists, including José Antonio Balseiro, and had a profound impact in developing physics in Argentina. He moved once more, this time to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, in 1951, where his influence in developing physics was also great. He was called back to Argentina in 1962, after the death of Balseiro, and continued his work at the Instituto Balseiro. In 1975, he returned to Brazil, and worked in the

Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas The Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (, CBPF) is a physics research center in the Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Urca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro sponsored by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), l ...

(CBPF). Apart from his influence as a teacher in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

he contributed to a theory of beta-decay,abstract
/ref> which was later superseded by a more complete theory by Fermi. He was a friend of the famous writer

Ernesto Sabato Ernesto Sabato (; June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter, and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the litera ...

. He died in a car accident in

in 1988.

Honours

*In 1977, he was given the doctoral degree of honour by the

Darmstadt University of Technology Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, Germany ''for his exemplary activity as an academic teacher and his relentless efforts in establishing research institutions in physics''.

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript with Guido Beck on 22 April 1967, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
- interview by John L. Heilbron * 1903 births 1988 deaths 20th-century German physicists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Argentina 20th-century Argentine physicists Scientists from Liberec Jews from Austria-Hungary 20th-century Brazilian physicists Jewish physicists German Bohemian people German people of Czech-Jewish descent Road incident deaths in Brazil {{Germany-physicist-stub