Physics: 1925

1) Franck, James (1882-1964), a German scientist, collaborated with Gustav Hertz in 1914 to prove the Niels Bohr theory of atomic structure. Franck and Hertz received the 1925 Nobel Prize in physics for research proving that electrons occupy certain energy levels in atoms. This research confirmed Bohr's theory. Franck also won recognition for his research in photochemistry and photosynthesis. He was awarded the Max Planck medal in 1953.

Franck was born in Hamburg, Germany, and studied at Heidelberg and the University of Berlin. He taught physics and chemistry in Berlin and in Gottingen. He became professor of physics at the University of Chicago in 1938.

2) Hertz, Gustav, pronounced hurts or hehrts, GUS tahf (1887-1975), a German physicist, shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in physics for proving the validity of Niels Bohr's theory of the atom. In 1932, Hertz developed a way of separating forms of chemical elements called isotopes. The United States government uses his process in its uranium separation plants. Hertz was born on July 22, 1887, in Hamburg. He received a doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1911. Hertz worked in the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1954. He died on Oct. 30, 1975.

Contributor: David Cassidy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Natural Science, Hofstra University.