Rolf Hosemann (20 April 1912 in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

– 28 September 1994 in

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 ...

) was a German physicist who laid the mathematical foundations for paracrystallinity.

Education and career

Hosemann was born in

and studied at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

and the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

. In 1936, he received his doctorate in Freiburg. He had received the topic of his dissertation The Radioactivity of Samarium from his academic teacher

George de Hevesy George Charles de Hevesy (born György Bischitz; hu, Hevesy György Károly; german: Georg Karl von Hevesy; 1 August 1885 – 5 July 1966) was a Hungarian radiochemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, recognized in 1943 for his key role ...

, who had to leave Germany in 1934 because of his Jewish descent. In 1939 he received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

with a thesis on small-angle X-ray scattering on cellulose. In 1951 he became a research associate with

Max von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. In addition to his scientific endeavors with cont ...

at the

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI) is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem (Berlin), Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry ...

in Berlin, which later became the Fritz Haber Institute. In 1960 he was put in charge of his own department at the Fritz Haber Institute, and in 1966 the Max Planck Society appointed him a scientific member. Hosemann retired from the

Fritz Haber Institute The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI) is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochem ...

in 1980 and moved to the

Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (german: , or BAM) is a German material research institute. History Its historical origins start in 1871, a year in which Germany was unified, as the ''Mechanisch-Technische Versuchsansta ...

in Berlin, where he continued the research on paracrystals until 1987. On 18 February 1974 the chemistry department of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his services to the development of theoretical crystallography, in particular the theory of paracrystals, and his fundamental work on the structure of macromolecules.

Personal life

Hosemann was married to Ursula (née Siebold), with whom he had four sons.

References

{{reflist 1994 deaths 1912 births Max Planck Society people Max Planck Institute directors University of Marburg alumni University of Freiburg alumni 20th-century German physicists