Ludwig Waldmann (June 8, 1913 in
Fürth
Fürth (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia.
It is the Franconia#Towns and cities, s ...
– February 9, 1980) 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 ...
who specialized in transport phenomena in gases. He derived the Waldmann-Snider equation.
[Hess, 2003]
Career
Waldmann completed his Ph.D. under
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in Atomic physics, atomic and Quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and also educated and ...
at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
in 1938. He was Sommerfeld’s assistant, at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, from 1937 to 1939. Waldman had been the scribe for Sommerfeld’s optics course in 1934, and Waldmann’s careful record of the lectures were the basis for Sommerfeld’s book ''
Optics - Lectures on Theoretical Physics Volume IV''.
After being granted his Ph.D. in 1938, his career spanned four decades with many publications to his name (at least 99):
*1939–1943: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Munich
*1943–1954:
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft
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 ...
and the
Max-Planck Institute
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...
(MPI) for Chemistry (In 1948 the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft facilities were named after Max Planck.)
**1943–1944: in
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 ...
**1944–1949: in Tailfingen
**1949–1954: in
Mainz
Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
*1954–1963: Fellow (wissenschaftliches Mitglied) of MPI, Mainz
*1963–1978: Chair for Theoretical Physics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
**1964/1965 Academic Year: Visiting professor, Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
**1974: Molecular Physics Group,
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...
*1978: Retired
Waldmann, for many years, was the chairman of the Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics section of the
German Physical Society
The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...
. He was also a corresponding member of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP; ) is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the ...
and a member of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...
.
Waldmann’s technical contributions were in the areas of kinetic theory of molecular gases, transport phenomena in gases and liquids, and
isotope separation
Isotope separation is the process of concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element by removing other isotopes. The use of the nuclides produced is varied. The largest variety is used in research (e.g. in chemistry where atoms of "marker" n ...
. The venerable ''Handbuch der Physik'' published his 220-page article “Transporterscheinungen in Gasen von mittlerem Druck” – a chapter in the article conveyed the then new quantum mechanics version of the
Boltzmann equation
The Boltzmann equation or Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) describes the statistical behaviour of a thermodynamic system not in a state of equilibrium; it was devised by Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872.Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd Edition), R. G ...
, which later became known as the Waldmann-Snider equation. The original Waldmann publications on the equation appeared in the literature in 1957 and 1958. Independently, R. F. Snider, a Canadian, published the same kinetic equation in 1960.
This equation provided the framework for the interpretation of the
Senftleben-Beenakker effect.
Honors
*1979 – Honorary Doctorate, University of Leiden
Internal Reports
The following report was published in ''
Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte
''Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics'') was an internal publication of the German ''Uranverein'', which was initiated under the ''Heereswaffenamt'' (Army Ordnance Office) in 1939; in 1942, supervision of ...
'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics''), an internal publication of the German ''
Uranverein
Nazi Germany undertook several research programs relating to nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, before and during World War II. These were variously called () or (). The first effort started in April 1939, ju ...
''. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied
Operation Alsos
The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II. Its chief focus was to investigate the progress that ...
and sent to the
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry ...
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the
Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association.
KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...
and the
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
.
[Walker, 1993, 268-274.]
*
Klaus Clusius
Klaus Paul Alfred Clusius (19 March 1903 – 28 May 1963) was a German physical chemist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; he worked on isotope separation techniques and heavy wa ...
,
Gerhard Dickel, and Ludwig Waldmann ''Über die Beeinflussung des Wirkungsgrades von Draht-Trennrohren durch Zentrierung und Einbaur von Scheiben'' G-132 (20 February 1942)
Bibliography
*Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996)
*Hess, Siegfrie
“In Memoriam Ludwig Waldmann” ''Naturforsch.'' 58a 269-274, 2003. (The author had been a student of Waldmann in Erlangen.)
*Sommerfeld, Arnold, translated from the German by Otto Laporte and Peter A. Moldauer ''
Optics - Lectures on Theoretical Physics Volume IV'' (Academic Press, 1964)
*Walker, Mark ''German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939–1949'' (Cambridge, 1993)
Notes
External links
Ludwig Waldmann– Mathematics Genealogy Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldmann, Ludwig
1913 births
1980 deaths
20th-century German physicists
People from Fürth
Nuclear program of Nazi Germany
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Academic staff of Leiden University