Isolde Hausser (; 7 December 1889 – 5 October 1951) was a German

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 ...

. She became the head of a department of the

Max Planck Institute for Medical Research The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is a facility of the Max Planck Society for basic medical research. Since its foundation, six Nobel Prize laureates worked at the Institute: Otto Fritz Meyerhof (Physiology), ...

(then

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science () was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organi ...

) in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

in 1935.

Life and work

Ganswindt was the daughter of Hermann Ganswindt and his first wife Anna Minna (née Fritsche, 1866-1911). After graduating from the Chamisso School in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1909, she began studying

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 ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. In 1914, she received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

degree in physics with a dissertation titled ''Erzeugung und Empfang kurzer elektrischer Wellen'' ("Production and reception of short electrical waves"). From 1914 to 1929 she worked as a staff member in the research department of

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

under the direction of Hans Rukop (1883-1958), with whom she also published several research papers. She married the physicist Karl Wilhelm Hausser (1887-1933) in 1918, with whom she had a son, Karl Hermann Hausser (1919-2001). In 1929 she joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, where she became head of an independent department in 1935. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research later became the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. She worked there until her death in 1951. Isolde Hausser made contributions to

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

research, the physics underlying

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a therapy, treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of treatment of cancer, cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignancy, malignant cell (biology), ...

, radar technology, and research on radiation in medicine. The ''Isolde-Hausser-Straße'' ("Isolde Hausser street") in

Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen (; , ) is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – locally known as "KW" () or "KWh" ()– lie ...

is named after her.

References

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hausser, Isolde 1889 births 1951 deaths 20th-century German physicists 20th-century German women scientists German women physicists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Scientists from Berlin Max Planck Institute directors