Sigurd Hofmann (15 February 1944 – 17 June 2022) 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 ...

known for his work on

superheavy element Superheavy elements, also known as transactinide elements, transactinides, or super-heavy elements, or superheavies for short, are the chemical elements with atomic number greater than 104. The superheavy elements are those beyond the actinides in ...

Biography

Hofmann was born in Böhmisch Kamnitz,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

(now Česká Kamenice, Czech Republic) on 15 February 1944. He discovered his love for

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 ...

at the Max Planck High School in Groß-Umstadt, Germany, where he graduated in 1963. He studied physics at the Technical University in Darmstadt (

Diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offi ...

, 1969, and thesis at the Institute of Nuclear Physics with Egbert Kankeleit and Karl Wien, 1974). From 1974 to 1989 he was responsible for the detection and identification of nuclei produced in heavy ion reactions at the velocity separator SHIP (Separator for Heavy Ion reaction Products) at the

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research () is a federally and state co-funded heavy ion () research center in Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1969 as the Society for Heavy Ion Research (), abbreviated GSI, to conduct research on a ...

. He was working in the Department Nuclear Chemistry II headed by Peter Armbruster. From 1989 he was leading, after Gottfried Münzenberg, the experiments for the synthesis of new elements. From 1998 he was Honorary Professor at the Goethe-Universität in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. He was the leading scientist with the discovery experiments of the chemical elements darmstadtium ( Ds,

atomic number The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol ''Z'') of a chemical element is the charge number of its atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei composed of protons and neutrons, this is equal to the proton number (''n''p) or the number of pro ...

110), roentgenium ( Rg, 111) and

copernicium Copernicium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Cn and atomic number 112. Its known isotopes are extremely radioactive, and have only been created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of ap ...

( Cn, 112). He made substantial contributions to the discovery experiments of the elements bohrium ( Bh, 107), hassium ( Hs, 108) and meitnerium ( Mt, 109). He participated in the discovery of the element flerovium ( Fl, 114) at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (FLNR) in

Dubna Dubna ( rus, Дубна́, p=dʊbˈna) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of '' naukograd'' (i.e. town of science), being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research center and o ...

, Russia, and his research group confirmed data measured on the synthesis of the elements flerovium and

livermorium Livermorium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Lv and atomic number 116. It is an extremely radioactive element that has only been created in a laboratory setting and has not been observed in nature. The element is named after the La ...

( Lv, 116) at FLNR. He identified many new isotopes located at the proton drip-line, among those the isotope ¹⁵¹Lu, the first case of radioactive emission of protons from the ground-state of a nucleus.S. Hofmann et al.: ''Proton radioactivity of ¹⁵¹Lu.'' In: ''Zeitschrift für Physik A: Atoms and Nuclei.'' Volume 305, 1982, pp. 111–123 His speciality was nuclear spectroscopy and heavy ion reactions. He died on 17 June 2022.

Awards

* 1984 "Physics Award" of the German Physical Society (together with Gottfried Münzenberg, Willibrord Reisdorf and Karl-Heinz Schmidt) * 1996 Otto Hahn Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main (together with Gottfried Münzenberg) * 1996 "Doctor honoris causa" of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Comenius University of

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, Slovakia * 1997 "G.N. Flerov Prize" of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research ( JINR) in

, Russia * 1998 "Honorary Professor" of the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany * 1998 "SUN-AMCO Medal" 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 ...

* 2001 "Doctor honoris causa" of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubn], Russia * 2002 "First Prize" of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia * 2004 "Distinguished Professor" of the Josef Buchmann Foundation and the Department of Physics of the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany * 2006 " Röntgen-Plakette, Roentgen Medal" of the City of Remscheid-Lennep, Germany, place of birth of Conrad Roentgen * 2009 " Helmholtz Professor" of the

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres () is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. The official mission of the Association is "solving the g ...

(HGF) * 2011 " Nicolaus Copernicus Medal" of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Poland * 2011 "Medal of the City of Toruń" and Nicolaus Copernicus University in

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

, Poland

Memberships

* German Physical Society *

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* Member of the

Russian Academy of Natural Sciences The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Russian language, Russian: Российская академия естественных наук) is a Russian non-governmental organization founded on August 31 1990 in Moscow in the former Soviet Uni ...

* Foreign member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences

Literature

* Sigurd Hofmann: ''On Beyond Uranium – Journey to the end of the Periodic Table''. In: Science Spectra Book Series, Volume 2, V. Moses, Series Editor, (hardback), (paperback), Taylor and Francis, London and New York, 2002, 216 Seiten
online
* Sigurd Hofmann: ''Synthesis of superheavy elements by cold fusion''. Radiochimica Acta Band 99, 2011, S. 405–428
online
* Sigurd Hofmann and Gottfried Münzenberg: ''The discovery of the heaviest elements''. In: Reviews of Modern Physics, Band 72, 200, pp. 733–767
online
* Sigurd Hofmann: ''Proton radioactivity''. In: Nuclear decay modes, D.N. Poenaru, Editor, , IOP Publishing Ltd, 1996, pp. 143–203

References

External links

* Sigurd Hofmann: ''Physics experiments on superheavy elements at the GSI-SHIP''. In: The 4th International Conference on the Chemistry and Physics of the Transactinide Elements. In: Sochi, Russia, 6–10 September, 2011
online
* Martyn Poliakoff of the University of Nottingham, UK, at GSI
online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofmann, Sigurd 1944 births 2022 deaths People from Děčín District Discoverers of chemical elements Members of Academia Europaea Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni 20th-century German physicists 21st-century German physicists