The Institute for Radium Research is an Austrian

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

associated with the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. The Institute's researchers won multiple Nobel Prizes. Due to the gradual change of interests, "nuclear physics" was added to the institute's name in 1956. Since 2004, it is called the ''Stefan-Meyer-Institute for subatomic physics''.

History

The Sankt Joachimsthal mines were located within the

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

monarchy, and were the largest producers of uranium containing ore at the end of the 19th century. Eduard Suess sent the first samples of

pitchblende Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the urani ...

to Pierre and

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

for their research on radioactive materials. This action was taken after the advice of Franz Serafin Exner. After the discovery of

radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

, the Austrian industrial Karl Kupelwieser donated 500,000 Austrian kronen to found an institute for research on radium in 1908. After constructing the building for the institute in 1909–1910, the institute was opened on 28 October 1910. Stefan Meyer became the first acting director, and Franz Serafin Exner was the director of the institute until Meyer took over in 1920. Meyer stayed in that position until the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

Österreichs in 1938, the annexation of Austria by

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 ...

, forced him to retire due to his Jewish ancestors.St. Sienell und Chr. Ottner: ''Das Archiv des Instituts für Radiumforschung'', Anzeiger der Österr. Akad. d. Wissenschaften Abt. II, 140, 11-53 (2004) After the war, he was reinstated as director and performed his duties until his retirement in 1947. The starting years were dominated by the research on the new element radium. Meyer was able to organize the production of 4

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

radium, as recommended in 1901 by the

. The chemical plant of Carl Auer von Welsbach, which was used to produce

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set o ...

s, provided the necessary technical equipment and knowledge required for separation of small quantities of material from ore. This relative large amount made it possible for Otto Hönigschmid to determine the molecular mass of radium using 1.5 g of radium bromide. Victor Franz Hess was working on the absorption of

gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...

s in the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

. His discovery of

cosmic ray Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the ...

s in 1912, which was rewarded by the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

in 1936, was a direct result of his work in the institute.

George de Hevesy George Charles de Hevesy (born György Bischitz; ; ; 1 August 1885 – 5 July 1966) was a Hungarian radiochemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, recognized in 1943 for his key role in the development of radioactive tracers to study ch ...

and Friedrich Adolf Paneth developed at the Institute the

radioactive tracer A radioactive tracer, radiotracer, or radioactive label is a synthetic derivative of a natural compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced by a radionuclide (a radioactive atom). By virtue of its radioactive decay, it can be used to ...

s method, for which Hevesy received the Nobel Prize in 1943. Initially, very few women scientists worked at the Institute, including Berta Karlik and Marietta Blau; however, the percentage of women reached 30% during the time of Meyer. From 1945 to 1974, Berta Karlik directed the Institute. In 1955, Karlik became professor for nuclear physics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, so that the Institute was now both an Academy and a University Institute. Herbert Vonach succeeded her as director from 1974 to 1986. The institute was renamed in 1956, so that "nuclear physics" was now included in the title - corresponding to the widened research interests. In 1987, the institute was converted into an "Institute for Intermediate Energy Physics" under the direction of W. H. Breunlich.

Honour

On 28 May 2015, the Institute received the title "Historic Site" by the European Physical Society.

Successor organisations

There are now two separate successor organisations: * The Stefan Meyer Institute for subatomic Physics of the

(SMI, earlier: Institute for Intermediate Energy Physics) that investigates the

Strong Interaction In nuclear physics and particle physics, the strong interaction, also called the strong force or strong nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interaction, fundamental interactions. It confines Quark, quarks into proton, protons, n ...

in cooperation with foreign research centers. * The Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics of the

which uses the particle accelerator VERA for

Radiocarbon Dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

and similar dating methods.

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * *{{cite journal, doi = 10.1017/S0007087405006989, title= Designing (for) a new scientific discipline: the location and architecture of the Institut für Radiumforschung in early twentieth-century Vienna, year = 2005, last1 = Rentetzi, first1 = Maria, journal = The British Journal for the History of Science, volume = 38, pages = 275–306, issue = 3
B. Strohmaier: Report on the Museum for the History of Physics in PöllauStefan-Meyer-Institute for Subatomic physics
Education in Austria Nuclear technology in Austria