Biographical Memoirs Volume 50 (1979) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Otto Laporte
Otto Laporte
Pages 268-285
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 269... ...
His father was a career officer in the Imperial German Army, and his specialty was heavy artillery. During the years before World War I, Colonel Laporte was successively stationed in the heavily fortified cities of Mainz, Cologne, and Metz, and it was in these cities that young Otto Laporte received his early schooling.
|
From page 270... ...
This, he said later, was because the courses involved only repetitious drill and endless numerical calculations requiring interpolation of five-place logarithm tables. Since failure in these subjects would have been a blot on the family honor, he was provided with extra tutoring.
|
From page 271... ...
In the summer of 1921 the Laporte family found it necessary to leave Frankfurt. Their apartment was taken over by the German Army of the French Occupation, and the housing short
|
From page 272... ...
The choice of that city was greatly influenced by the facts that Arnold Sommerfeld was the professor of theoretical physics at the University of Munich and that he was establishing there one of the foremost centers of physics in Europe. Max Born had sent Sommerfeld a very enthusiastic recommendation regarding Laporte, and the young man found himself accepted and welcomed by the group of theorists who had been drawn there by the presence of Sommerfeld.
|
From page 273... ...
This latter research formed the basis of his dissertation for the doctoral degree, which was awarded in 1924. In the course of his successful investigations of these spectra, he discovered the fundamental principle known among spectroscopists as the "Laporte rule." This rule classified the atomic energy states into two types, which he had called odd and even states.
|
From page 274... ...
In addition to his completion of the analysis of the iron spectrum and the acceptance of his Ph.D. thesis, he was awarded one of the first of the International Education Board fellowships.
|
From page 275... ...
Laporte was able to honor this request, although it meant cutting his visit to Japan somewhat short. It also meant that he had to make a nonstop journey of two weeks duration via the trans-Siberian railway in order to arrive in Munich on time, an adventure he did not soon forget.
|
From page 276... ...
Two years later he was presented with the unexpected opportunity to do experiments in fluid dynamics by means of a shock tube. Lincoln Smith, a member of the Michigan faculty, had somewhat earlier initiated work in this field and had assembled apparatus of an advanced design.
|
From page 277... ...
He exerted strong influence in directing the attention of physicists to an area of study that was to be, for many of them, new and highly rewarding. Soon after his death the Division of Fluid Dynamics established, in recognition not only of his scholarship but also of his early guidance of the organization, the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship, to be given annu
|
From page 278... ...
Special recognition should be made of Otto Laporte's graduate teaching. His early association with European lecturers in theoretical physics in an era when a certain elegant formality was practiced came through in Otto's teaching in a desirable way, but at the same time his lectures were not so structured that he could not pursue byways when it suited him to do so.
|
From page 279... ...
His own piano playing was passable but venturesome, and was indulged in for his own enjoyment. But his real expertise was in his wide knowledge of the literature of music and his wide acquaintance with professional musicians in this country and abroad.
|
From page 280... ...
Thesis: "Exact Treatment of Scattering of EM Waves by a Sphere." 1924-1926 International Education Fellow; studied in Europe, Japan, and finally in the United States in the spectro scopy section of the National Bureau of Standards. Joined University of Michigan faculty as instructor in physics.
|
From page 281... ...
Assumed charge of shock tube laboratory at University of Michigan. Scientific Intelligence Analyst, U.S.
|
From page 282... ...
Series and ionisation potentials in the iron spectrum.
|
From page 283... ...
Rev., 38:843-53. Approximation of geometric optics as applied to a Dirac electron moving in a magnetic field.
|
From page 284... ...
In: Proceed ings of the Arnold Sommejeld Centennial Memorial Meeting and of the International Symposium on the Physics of One- and Two-Electron Atoms, Munich, September 1968. Amsterdam: North Holland Press.
|
From page 285... ...
Low temperature shock waves in molecular hydrogen. In: Eighth International Shock Tube Symposium, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, July 1971 (preprint)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.