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Stefan Meyer (27 April 1872 – 29 December 1949) was an
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
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 ...
involved in research on radioactivity. He became director of the Institute for Radium Research in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
and received the
Lieben Prize The Ignaz Lieben Prize, named after the Austrian banker , is an annual Austrian award made by the Austrian Academy of Sciences to young scientists working in the fields of molecular biology, chemistry, or physics. Biography The Ignaz Lieben Pri ...
in 1913 for his research on radium. He was the brother of Hans Leopold Meyer who was also awarded the
Lieben Prize The Ignaz Lieben Prize, named after the Austrian banker , is an annual Austrian award made by the Austrian Academy of Sciences to young scientists working in the fields of molecular biology, chemistry, or physics. Biography The Ignaz Lieben Pri ...
.


Life and work

Stefan was the second son of Jewish parents: a lawyer and notary Gotthelf Karl Meyer and his wife Clara (née Goldschmidt, sister of
Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt (10 February 1853 in Mainz – 8 May 1933 in Salzburg) was a German mineralogist, natural philosopher, and art collector. Life Born 1853 in Mainz, Goldschmidt attended the Bergakademie Freiberg in Saxony and grad ...
). He went to school in Vienna and later graduated from gymnasium in Horn in 1892. He studied physics at the University of Vienna and attended the University of Leipzig for one year. He obtained his PhD in 1896 for work with Franz Serafin Exner and completed 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 ...
in 1900. In 1897, Meyer became assistant of
Ludwig Boltzmann Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodyn ...
at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Vienna. His research was dedicated to magnetic permeability of liquids. After a talk of
Friedrich Oskar Giesel Friedrich Oskar Giesel (20 May 1852 – 13 November 1927, known as Fritz) was a German organic chemist. During his work in a quinine factory in the late 1890s, he started to work on the at-that-time-new field of radiochemistry and started the ...
– a pioneer in the research and production of radium – he obtained a sample of radium from Giesel to determine magnetic properties of the new element. Meyer and his colleague Egon von Schweidler were able to show that the
Becquerel The becquerel (; symbol: Bq) is the unit of radioactivity in the International System of Units (SI). One becquerel is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. For applications relatin ...
rays (beta rays) could be deflected by magnetic fields; this effect was discovered simultaneously by several scientists, but Meyer ''et al.'' also showed that the radiation from polonium (alpha rays) behaved differently in the magnetic field. 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 one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...
s of radium, as recommended in 1901 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The chemical plant of Auer von Welsbach, which was used to produce rare earth elements, provided the necessary technical equipment and knowledge for separation of small quantities of material from ore. Meyer became interim head of the institute for one year after the suicide of Boltzmann. During that time, Meyer had also contacted
Lise Meitner Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...
before she left for Berlin in 1907. Meyer became assistant of Exner in 1908 and professor in 1909. The ample supply of radium which he shared with the Curies in Paris, Rutherford in Manchester and Ramsey in London made him a key figure in the research on radium. The only larger source for radium-containing
pitchblende Uraninite, formerly 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 uranium causes t ...
was the Sankt Joachimsthal mines, which were located in
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. To improve the industrial use and mining of radium, Austrian industrialist donated 500,000 Austrian kronen to found an institute for research on radium in 1908. In 1910, the Institute for Radium Research in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
was opened. Meyer became its first acting director under Exner who was the official director of the institute. The institute in Vienna opened two years before the Institute du Radium in Paris. During the time when Meyer was acting director, a number of prominent scientists worked at the institute, including
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 rol ...
,
Victor Francis Hess Victor Franz Hess (; 24 June 188317 December 1964) was an Austrian-American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics, who discovered cosmic rays. Biography He was born to Vinzenz Hess and Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt, in Waldstein ...
and
Friedrich Paneth Friedrich Adolf Paneth (31 August 1887 – 17 September 1958) was an Austrian-born British chemist. Fleeing the Nazis, he escaped to Britain. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1939. After the war, Paneth returned to Germany to bec ...
. With the Anschluss Österreichs in 1938, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Meyer as a
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
had to leave office. He requested retirement before he was forced out of the institute. He stayed in his house in the countryside of Austria and, because of the intervention of several people, was left unharmed for the rest of the war. His older brother Hans Leopold Meyer, a professor of chemistry, was less protected and was killed in the
Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...
in 1942. After the war, Meyer was rehabilitated and allowed to return to his Institute as director. Meyer died in
Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haiden' ...
in 1949 and is buried in the
Bad Ischl Friedhof Bad Ischl Friedhof is the town cemetery of Bad Ischl in Austria. It is on the State of Upper Austria's list of protected historical sites. The cemetery was originally located at the . In 1719 it was moved to its present location on Grazer Straß ...
.


Publications

Stefan Meyer published several articles on radioactivity together with Schweidler. He compiled most of the findings on radioactivity in a book. This book became a standard German textbook on radioactivity similar to the book of Curie in French and the book of Rutherford in English. During his forced retirement, he wrote a book on musical instruments and acoustics.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Stefan Austrian nuclear physicists Austrian Jews 1872 births 1949 deaths Burials at the Bad Ischl Friedhof