Walther (Wilhelm Georg) Bothe - Biography, Personal life, External links and further reading

Physicist, born in Oranienburg, NE Germany. From 1934 he was head of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research at Heidelberg. His work on the development of the coincidence technique in counting processes brought him a share of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954.

Portions of the summary below have been contributed by Wikipedia.

Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (January 8, 1891 – February 8, 1957) was a German physicist, mathematician, chemist, and Nobel Prize winner. Bothe won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics (along with Max Born) for his invention of the coincidence circuit.

Biography

Early years

Bothe was born in Oranienburg, Germany (near Berlin) and studied physics from 1908 until 1912 at the University of Berlin under Max Planck, earning his doctorate by 1914. Bothe's coincidence circuit was one of the first AND logic gates (1924).

Middle years

During the 1920s, Bothe used the coincidence method to discover penetrating radiation coming from the upper atmosphere;

Bothe began applying the coincidence method to the transmutation of light elements by the bombardment with alpha particles in 1927.

Bothe taught at the University of Berlin from 1920 to 1931, at the University of Giessen from 1931 to 1934 and in 1932 was appointed Director of the Institute of Physics at the University of Heidelberg, succeeding Philipp Lenard. In 1934, Bothe became Director of the Institute of Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. In 1938, Wolfgang Gentner and Bothe published a paper on the energy dependence of the nuclear photo-effect, which was the first decisive evidence that the absorption spectra of nuclei are accumulative and continuous.

Later years and death

In 1941, Bothe and Peter Jensen reported the results of testing on neutron absorption in graphite. In 1943, Bothe completed Germany's first cyclotron, and was awarded the Max Planck medal in 1953. Bothe continued to work at the Institute of Physics in the Max Planck Institute until his death in Heidelberg in 1957.

Personal life

Bothe considered himself a German patriot, and did not believe that his German weapons research during the Second World War required an excuse.

Bothe married Barbara Below of Moscow and had two children. Bothe, W., "Remarks on the Leipziger DÒ attempt". Bothe, W., "The distribution of velocity of the neutrons in a braking means". Bothe, W., "The vermehrung of fast neutrons in uranium and some other work from the KWI Heidelberg". Bothe, W., "Over radiation protection walls".

External links and further reading

States, David M., "Walther Bothe and the Physics Institute: The Early Years of Nuclear Physics". "Walther Bothe and the Physics Institute: the Early Years of Nuclear Physics". Annotated bibliography for Walther Bothe from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Hoffmann, Dieter, Horst Kant and Hubert Laitko. "Walther Bothe - Wissenschaftler in vier Reichen. (tr. "Walther Bothe - scientists in four realms.