Isolde Hausser (née Ganswindt; 7 December 1889 – 5 October 1951) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 caus ...

. She became the head of a department of the

Max Planck Institute for Medical Research The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is a facility of the Max Planck Society for basic medical research. Since its foundation, six Nobel Prize laureates worked at the Institute: Otto Fritz Meyerhof (Physiology), R ...

(then

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (German: ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften'') was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by ...

) in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

in 1935.

Life and work

Ganswindt was the daughter of

Hermann Ganswindt Hermann Ganswindt (12 June 1856, Voigtshof bei Seeburg, East Prussia – 25 October 1934) was a German inventor and spaceflight scientist, whose inventions (such as the dirigible, the helicopter, and the internal combustion engine) are thou ...

and his first wife Anna Minna (née Fritsche, 1866-1911). After graduating from the Chamisso School in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1909, she began studying

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. In 1914, she received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

degree in physics with a dissertation titled ''Erzeugung und Empfang kurzer elektrischer Wellen'' ("Production and reception of short electrical waves"). From 1914 to 1929 she worked as a staff member in the research department of

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" app ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

under the direction of Hans Rukop (1883-1958), with whom she also published several research papers. She married the physicist Karl Wilhelm Hausser (1887-1933) in 1918, with whom she had a son, Karl Hermann Hausser (1919-2001). In 1929 she joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, where she became head of an independent department in 1935. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research later became the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. She worked there until her death in 1951. Isolde Hausser made contributions to

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

research, the physics underlying

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

, radar technology, and research on radiation in medicine. The ''Isolde-Hausser-Straße'' ("Isolde Hausser street") in

Königs Wusterhausen Königs Wusterhausen () is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin. Geography Geographical location Königs Wusterhausen – or "KW" () as it is often called locally – lie ...

is named after her.

References

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hausser, Isolde 1889 births 1951 deaths 20th-century German physicists 20th-century German women scientists German women physicists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Scientists from Berlin Max Planck Institute directors