Horst Meyer (March 1, 1926 – August 14, 2016) was a Swiss scientist doing research in
condensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...
.
Meyer was the son of the surgeon Arthur Woldemar Meyer in Berlin and the grandson of the pharmacologist
Hans Horst Meyer. After Arthur's sudden death in 1933 he was adopted by the chemist
Kurt Heinrich Meyer
Kurt Heinrich Meyer or Kurt Otto Hans Meyer (29 September 1883 – 14 April 1952) was a German chemist.
Life and work
Born in Tartu, Estonia, Meyer was the son of the pharmacologist Hans Horst Meyer. He was a student from 1892 until 1901 in the � ...
, the brother of Arthur, and grew up in Switzerland. After graduating from the Collège Jean Calvin in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, he studied
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...
at the universities of Geneva and of
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, obtaining his PhD in 1953. He was first a postdoctoral associate, later a
Nuffield Fellow in the
Clarendon Laboratory
The Clarendon Laboratory, located on Parks Road within the Science Area in Oxford, England (not to be confused with the Clarendon Building, also in Oxford), is part of the Department of Physics at Oxford University. It houses the atomic and la ...
at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, from 1957 lecturer at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. In 1959 he was appointed an assistant professor at
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
(where
Fritz London
Fritz Wolfgang London (March 7, 1900 – March 30, 1954) was a German born physicist and professor at Duke University. His fundamental contributions to the theories of chemical bonding and of intermolecular forces (London dispersion forces) are to ...
was formerly on the faculty), and where he became in 1984 the Fritz London Professor and finally professor emeritus in 2004.
Meyer died from cancer in 2016.
He was visiting professor at the
Technische Universität München
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
(1965), the
University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
and
Toyota Technological Institute
The (commonly referred to as TTI) is a university located in Nagoya, Japan. Founded in 1981 by a large endowment from Toyota Motor Corporation, it originally only accepted students with some industrial work experience.
Programs
TTI has a Scho ...
in
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
, and also 1974 and 1975 at the
Institut Laue–Langevin
The Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL) is an internationally financed scientific facility, situated on the Polygone Scientifique in Grenoble, France. It is one of the world centres for research using neutrons. Founded in 1967 and honouring the phy ...
in
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
. In 1992 he became co-editor of the
Journal of Low Temperature Physics
The ''Journal of Low Temperature Physics'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of low temperature physics and cryogenics, including superconductivity, superfluidity, matter waves, magnetism and electronic properties, ...
, and in 2014 honorary editor. In 1988 he was guest scientist of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...
.
He was involved with experimental low temperature physics. Among the topics he did research upon were magnetic compounds, beta-quinone
clathrate compound
A clathrate is a chemical substance consisting of a lattice that traps or contains molecules. The word ''clathrate'' is derived from the Latin (), meaning 'with bars, latticed'. Most clathrate compounds are polymeric and completely envelop the ...
s, solid and liquid
helium
Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
, solid
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
and
deuterium
Deuterium (hydrogen-2, symbol H or D, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen; the other is protium, or hydrogen-1, H. The deuterium nucleus (deuteron) contains one proton and one neutron, whereas the far more c ...
, and various
phase transition
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...
s such as order-disorder phase transitions in solid hydrogen. His studies also included the normal–superfluid transition in helium-4 and in mixtures of helium-3 and helium-4, and also their liquid–vapor
critical point. Furthermore, he did research on the
Rayleigh–Bénard convection
In Thermal fluids, fluid thermodynamics, Rayleigh–Bénard convection is a type of natural convection, occurring in a planar horizontal layer of fluid heated from below, in which the fluid develops a regular pattern of convection cells known as ...
and its onset in
supercritical helium-3. The list of his publications,
as well as the list of his former PhD students and collaborators can be found in his weblink.
In 1993 he received the Fritz London Memorial Prize and in 1982 the
Jesse Beams
Jesse Wakefield Beams (December 25, 1898 in Belle Plaine, Kansas – July 23, 1977) was an American physicist at the University of Virginia. He was particularly known for his role in the development of the ultracentrifuge.
Biography
Beams ...
Award of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
, of which he was a Fellow since 1970. From 1961 until 1965 he was an
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. ( ; May 23, 1875February 17, 1966) was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a longtime president, chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation. First as a senior executive and later as ...
Fellow. In 2014 he was awarded the “University Medal” of Duke University. One of his PhD students,
Robert Coleman Richardson, shared the 1996
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
with
Douglas Osheroff and
David Lee for the discovery of
superfluidity
Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...
in helium-3.
[Thomson Gale, 2004]
In 1953 he married Ruth Mary Hunter (deceased in 2013) and he has one son, Christopher, who is a staff physicist at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...
(NIST).
References
External links
Meyer homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Horst
1926 births
2016 deaths
Duke University faculty
Scientists from Berlin
Swiss physicists