Hermann Senftleben (April 8, 1890, in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

– 1975 in

Recklinghausen Recklinghausen (; ) is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south. Recklinghaus ...

) was a German physicist and physical chemist.

Education and life

Senftleben was born in Bremen. After graduating from the König-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Breslau, Senftleben studied physics at the University of Breslau and received his doctorate with

Rudolf Ladenburg Rudolf Walter Ladenburg (June 6, 1882 in Kiel – April 6, 1952 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German atomic physicist. He emigrated from Germany as early as 1932 and became a Brackett Research Professor at Princeton University. When the wave of ...

. The dissertation was about the glow of flames, which he attributed in part to light scattering from small particles in the flame. He was then an assistant in Breslau (with Carl Hintze,

Arnold Eucken Arnold Thomas Eucken (; 3 July 1884 – 16 June 1950) was a German chemist and physicist. He is known for his contribution to thermodynamics and molecular physics, in particular, for the discovery of Eucken's law of thermal conductivity, the meas ...

and

Otto Lummer Otto Richard Lummer (17 July 1860 – 5 July 1925) was a German physicist and researcher. He was born in the city of Gera, Germany. With Leon Arons, Lummer helped to design and build the Arons–Lummer mercury-vapor lamp. Lummer primarily worke ...

) and Marburg (with Clemens Schaefer), where he

habilitated Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellen ...

in 1924 and became a

privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

. From 1935 until his retirement in 1958 he was a full professor at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

. He also conducted research there from 1946 to 1961 as an employee at the

Marl Chemical Park Marl Chemical Park () is an industrial park in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the third largest industrial cluster in Germany and among the largest chemical industry, chemical production facilities in Europe. The site occupies over ...

. Stimulated by Eucken, he turned to physical chemistry in the 1930s. Among other things, he researched on the direct proof of the dissociation of molecules by collisions of the second kind, the course of the reaction in the production of hydrogen and the electron affinity of oxygen. In particular, however, he investigated the conduction of heat in gases. The Senftleben-Beenakker effects are named after him and Jan Beenakker, the influence of electric and magnetic fields on the transport properties (thermal conductivity, viscosity) of molecular gases.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:sENFTLEBEN, hERMANN 1975 deaths 1890 births Academic staff of the University of Münster German physical chemists University of Breslau alumni Academic staff of the University of Marburg People from Bremen (city) German physicists 20th-century German physicists Academic staff of the University of Breslau