Reinhold Heinrich (Henry) Furth (20 October 1893 – 17 July 1979) was a German-speaking physicist born in Prague, noted for his 1951

BAAS BaaS may refer to: * Banking as a service * Backend as a service * Blockchain as a service See also * Baas, a Dutch surname {{disambig ...

lecture "Physics and Social Equilibrium". He is also remembered for his 1934 theory that stars are composed of

antiparticles In particle physics, every type of particle of "ordinary" matter (as opposed to antimatter) is associated with an antiparticle with the same mass but with opposite physical charges (such as electric charge). For example, the antiparticle of the ...

. He edited the collected papers of

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

on the ''Theory of Brownian Movement'' and, informed by his expertise in that field, was the first to interpret the "formal analogy between the differential equations for the probability distribution of the position of a mechanical system according to classical statistics, and those according to quantum mechanics"; a precursor to the later development of

stochastic quantum mechanics Stochastic quantum mechanics is a framework for describing the dynamics of particles that are subjected to an intrinsic random processes as well as various external forces. The framework provides a derivation of the diffusion equations associated ...

Life

He was born in Prague (then

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) on 20 October 1893 and was educated there at the Austrian State Gymnasium. He then attended the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague gaining a doctorate (PhD) in 1916. From 1931 to 1938 he was professor of experimental physics at the German University in Prague. Shortly before the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he moved to Scotland, becoming a research fellow at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. In 1943 he was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

Robert Schlapp Robert Schlapp FRSE (18 July 1899 – 31 May 1991) was a 20th-century British physicist and mathematician of German descent. He was affectionately known as Robin Schlapp. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 18 July 1899, the youngest of three ch ...

, Ivor Etherington, and

James Pickering Kendall James Pickering Kendall FRS FRSE (30 July 1889, in Chobham, Surrey – 14 June 1978, in Edinburgh) was a British chemist. Life Kendall was born in Chobham, Surrey to soldier William Henry Kendall of the Royal Horse Artillery, and his second wi ...

. In 1965 he won the society's

Keith Medal The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathema ...

. In Edinburgh he lived at 60 Grange Loan. In 1947 he left Edinburgh to become a reader in theoretical physics at

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public research university located in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' ...

in London. He died in

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater ...

in London on 17 July 1979.

Publications

: ''Investigations on the Theory of Brownian Movement'' (1922) edited by R. Fürth *''Dynamic Theory of Gases'' (1926) with

James Jeans Sir James Hopwood Jeans (11 September 1877 – 16 September 1946) was an English physicist, mathematician and an astronomer. He served as a secretary of the Royal Society from 1919 to 1929, and was the president of the Royal Astronomical Soci ...

*''On certain relations between classical statistics and quantum mechanics'' (1933) *''On the Theory of Stochastic Phenomena and its Application to some Problems of Cosmic Physics'' (1956) *''Fundamental Problems of Modern Theoretical Physics'' (1970) *''The Philosophy of

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

'' (1958)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furth, Reinhold Henry 1893 births 1979 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scientists from Prague Czech physicists 20th-century non-fiction writers Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom