Robert Otto Pohl (December 17, 1929 – August 30, 2024) was a German-American physicist, specialized 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 ...

topics such as

amorphous solids In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is a characteristic of a crystal. The terms "glass" and "glassy solid" are sometimes used synonymo ...

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to heat conduction, conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa and is measured in W·m−1·K−1. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low ...

, and

thin films A thin film is a layer of materials ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ...

, who was the Goldwin Smith Emeritus Professor of Physics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He developed the 3ω-method, widely used to measure thermal conductivities. He is also known for showing that thermal properties of

are different from crystalline solids at low temperatures.

Biography

Robert O. Pohl was born in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

in 1929. His father was the physicist Robert Wichard Pohl, whose maternal grandfather was (1826–1884), a member of the

Hamburg Parliament The Hamburg Parliament (; literally “Hamburgish Citizenry” or, more poetically, “Hamburgish Burgess (title), Burgessry”) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. ...

. After completing undergraduate study at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, Robert O. Pohl matriculated as a graduate student at the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. There he graduated with a ''

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

'' (M.S.) in 1955 and a doctorate in 1957 and worked as an assistant in physics for the academic year 1957–1958. He emigrated to the United States in 1958. At

he was a research associate (from 1958 to 1960), an assistant professor from 1960 to 1963, an associate professor from 1963 to 1968), a full professor from 1968 to 2000, and Goldwin Smith Emeritus Professor of Physics from 2000 to 2024. He held visiting appointments at

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

(1964), the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

(1966–1967), the

Ludwig Maximilian 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 ...

, the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz () is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is ...

, the

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...

, New Zealand's

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, China's

Tongji University Tongji University is a public university located in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. Tongji is one of the ...

, and the Nuclear Research Center in

Jülich Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. As a border region between the competin ...

Research

Robert O. Pohl has done research on experimental investigations of glass and glassy materials, as well as heat transport and lattice transport behavior in crystalline solids and in amorphous solids, structure of glass, cryogenic techniques, and energy problems. With R. C. Zeller, Pohl worked on glass at low temperatures. They showed in 1971 that glasses behave similarly at low temperature but do not follow the

Debye model In thermodynamics and solid-state physics, the Debye model is a method developed by Peter Debye in 1912 to estimate phonon contribution to the specific heat ( heat capacity) in a solid. It treats the vibrations of the atomic lattice (heat) a ...

. His doctoral students included Venkatesh Narayanamurti. Springer published Robert Wichard Pohl's 3-volume edition of ''Einführung in die Physik'' (vol. 1, ''Mechanik und Akustik'', 1930; vol. 2, ''Elektrizitätslehre'', 1927; vol. 3, 1940, ''Optik'') with many later editions and a 2-volume edition edited by Klaus Lüders and Robert O. Pohl (vol. 1, ''Mechanik, Akustik und Wärmelehre'', 19th edition, 2004; vol. 2, 22nd edition, 2006). Robert O. Pohl added videos of demonstration experiments for the latest editions. Pohl died in

, Germany on August 30, 2024, at the age of 94.

Pohl's opinions on nuclear waste disposal

In addition to his main research interests, Robert O. Pohl was concerned about radioactive waste disposal and its effects on the environment and human health. During the

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

he served on a Presidential advisory committee on nuclear waste disposal. In a 1982 article published in ''Physics Today'', Pohl wrote:

Honors and awarsd

In 1985 he received the

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Labor ...

for "his pioneering work on low energy excitations in amorphous materials and continued important contributions to the understanding of thermal transport in solids." It was considered the highest recognition in condensed matter physics. Pohl was elected in 1972 a fellow 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 ...

, in 1984 a fellow of

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

and in 1999 a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. For the academic year 1973–1974 he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1980 he received the Humboldt US Senior Scientist Award.

Selected publications

Articles

* * (over 500 citations) * * (over 2200 citations) * (over 1050 citations) See

aluminium nitride Aluminium nitride ( Al N) is a solid nitride of aluminium. It has a high thermal conductivity of up to 321 W/(m·K) and is an electrical insulator. Its wurtzite phase (w-AlN) has a band gap of ~6 eV at room temperature and has a potent ...

. * (over 400 citations) * * * (over 450 citations) * * (over 3050 citations) * * * * (over 2000 citations) * * * * * (over 400 citations) *

Books

* translated from ''Pohls Einführung in die Physik, Band. 1 : Mechanik, Akustik und Wärmelehre'' by William D. Brewers (Vol. 1 contains 77 videos of experiments.) * translated from ''Pohls Einführung in die Physik, Band.2 : Elektizitaetslehre und Optik'' by William D. Brewer (Vol. 2 contains 41 videos of experiments.)

References

External links

* (movie from the early 1970s) * * (creators: Klaus Lüders, Robert Otto Pohl, ''et al.'') * (creators: Klaus Lüders, Robert Otto Pohl, ''et al.'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Pohl, Robert Otto 1929 births 2024 deaths 20th-century German physicists 21st-century German physicists 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Condensed matter physicists University of Freiburg alumni University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Cornell University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners