Egon Schweidler, (* 10 February 1873, in Vienna; †10 February 1948, in Salzburg Seeham) was an
Austrian 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 ...
.
Biography
He was born in 1873 as the son of the court and ''Gerichtsadvokaten'' Emil von Schweidler born in Vienna. After studying physics and mathematics, he earned his doctorate with a dissertation "On the internal friction of mercury and some Amalgamen" (1895). He was assistant to
Franz Exner.
Career
In 1899, he went to the University of Vienna. In 1911 he was appointed as an associate professor. From 1911 to 1926, he was the head of the
Department of Experimental Physics at the
University of Innsbruck, where he was dean in 1924 and rector in 1925/26. In 1926, he returned as per his appeal as an Ordinary II at the Physics Institute of the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
. There, he also worked as a secretary (1929-1933), Secretary-General (1933-1938), and Vice President (1939-1945) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1933, he was also elected chairman of the
German Physical Society.
Legacy
From an historical view, his major works in the field of
atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric electricity is the study of electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet). The movement of charge between the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the ionosphere is known as the global atmospheric electr ...
should be mentioned. Schweidler's scientific work was recognized very early (1907) with the award of "
Baumgartner Prize" of the
Vienna Academy of Sciences for the study of the anomalies in the behavior of
dielectric
In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an electrical insulator that can be polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric charges do not flow through the mate ...
s. He pointed (in 1899) with
Stefan Meyer, among others, the statistical nature of the
radioactive decay or the
magnetic deflection of
beta radiation
A beta particle, also called beta ray or beta radiation (symbol β), is a high-energy, high-speed electron or positron emitted by the radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus during the process of beta decay. There are two forms of beta decay, β∠...
as fast
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
s. His predicted variations (1905) of the
ionization
Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecul ...
radiation formed in the end a large number of theoretical and experimental investigations.
Publications
* Die atmosphärische Elektrizität, 1903 (mit H. Mach)
** TR: The atmospheric electricity, 1903 (with H. Mach)
* Über Schwankungen der radioaktiven Umwandlung, Comptes Rendus du Premier Congres International pour L’etude de la Radiologie et de Ionisation, Liege, 12.-14.
** TR: About fluctuations of the radioactive transformation, Comptes Rendus Prime du Congres International pour la de L'etude et de Radiologie ionization, Liege, 12.-14. September 1905 September 1905
* Standardwerk über Radioaktivität, (mit S. Meyer), 1916 (2. Auflage 1927)
** TR:Standard work on radioactivity, (with S. Meyer), 1916 (2nd edition 1927)
Sources
* Berta Karlik, Erich Schmid: Franz Serafin Exner und sein Kreis. Verlag der Österreichischen Akadademie der Wissenschaft, Wien 1982,
** TR: Franz Exner and his circle.
* Wolfgang L. Reiter: Stefan Meyer: Pioneer of Radioactivity. Physics in Perspective. Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 106–127, 2001 106-127 2001
* Max von Laue: History of Physics. 1966
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweidler, Egon
1873 births
1948 deaths
Scientists from Vienna
University of Vienna alumni
Austrian physicists
Academics of the University of Innsbruck
Burials at Döbling Cemetery