Hilda Hänchen (later Hilda Lindberg or Hilda Lindberg-Hänchen, 1 September 1919 - 19 October 2013) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 ...

Life and work

Hilda Hänchen received her doctorate in 1943 from the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

under the supervision of

Fritz Goos Hermann Fritz Gustav Goos (11 January 1883 – 18 May 1968) was a German physicist and astronomer. Life and work Goos attended the '' Johanneum'' '' Gymnasium'' in Hamburg, from where he graduated with a high school diploma in March 1902. Unti ...

, with a dissertation titled ''Über das Eindringen des totalreflektierten Lichtes in das dünnere Medium'' ("On the penetration of totally reflected light into the rarer medium"). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she worked as a "managing"

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, research institute, or privately held organization to provide assistance in academic or private research endeavors. Research assistants work under ...

at the State Physics Institute in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

(to allow male academics to return after military service, women could be employed as managing assistants only). She concurrently worked at the Physical-Chemical Research Institute in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

on war research contracts and was listed in the register of sponsorships of the ''Reichsforschungsrat'' ("Reich Research Council"). From 1949 to 1951 she was a referee for the chemistry journal ''

Chemisches Zentralblatt ''Chemisches Zentralblatt'' is the first and oldest abstracts journal published in the field of chemistry. It covers the chemical literature from 1830 to 1969 and describes therefore the "birth" of chemistry as science, in contrast to alchemy. The ...

''. Around 1975 she was the chairperson of the local

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

chapter of ''Deutscher Akademikerinnenbund'' ("Association of German women academics"). With her doctoral advisor Fritz Goos, Hänchen discovered the Goos-Hänchen effect, which is an

optical phenomenon Optical phenomena are any observable events that result from the interaction of light and matter. All optical phenomena coincide with quantum phenomena. Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the Sun or Moon with ...

in which linearly polarized light undergoes a small lateral shift when totally internally reflected. In 1946 she married physicist Albert Hermann Lindberg (born 1914), who before his retirement in 1979 served as the Vice President and Development Director of Leybold AG. They had three daughters - Renate, Claudia, and Dorothea.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hänchen, Hilda 1919 births 2013 deaths 20th-century German physicists 20th-century German women scientists German women physicists Scientists from Hamburg University of Hamburg alumni