Ivan Nikolov Stranski (; ; – 19 June 1979) was a
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
n and later a
German physical chemist who is considered the father of
crystal growth research.
He was the founder of the Bulgarian school of physical chemistry, heading the departments of physical chemistry at
Sofia University
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria.
Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...
and later at ''Technische Hochschule Berlin'' (today
Technische Universität Berlin), of which he was also
rector.
The
Stranski–Krastanov growth and
Kossel–Stranski model are some of Stranski's contributions which bear his name.
Biography
Early life and studies
Ivan Stranski was born on 21 December 1896
O.S. (2 January 1897
N.S.) in
Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
, the capital of the
Principality of Bulgaria, the third child of Nikola Stranski (1854 - 1910), pharmacist to the
royal court, and his wife Maria Krohn, a
Baltic German.
* Ever since his childhood he suffered from bone
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
, an incurable disease at the time. Stranski finished the First Sofia High School for Boys. Seeking ways to fight the illness, Stranski decided to study medicine, though he returned to Bulgaria disappointed after a year of studies in
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. ...
. He graduated from Sofia University in 1922, majoring in chemistry, and went to the
Friedrich Wilhelm University of
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
for further studies. There, in 1925, he acquired his
Dr. phil. under Paul Günther with a dissertation on
X-ray spectroscopy.
International academic career
Following his doctoral studies, Stranski joined Sofia University's newly established Department of Physical Chemistry of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in 1925 as a
reader, becoming the first reader of physical chemistry in the country. By 1929, he was promoted to
associate professor and by 1937 he was a
regular professor at Sofia University. Stranski attracted prominent scientists such as
Rostislaw Kaischew and
Lyubomir Krastanov to the department.
In 1930, Ivan Stranski received a
Rockefeller scholarship and along with
Kaischew was invited to Technische Hochschule Berlin, where he collaborated with prominent physical chemist
Max Volmer.
The 1930s saw the publishing of several important articles which Stranski co-authored with
Kaischew and
Krastanov, such as the 1939 discovery of
Stranski–Krastanov growth. In 1935–1936 he was head of department at the Ural Institute of Physics and Mechanics in
Sverdlovsk in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. In 1941, Stranski was invited by
Walther Kossel to conduct research in
Technische Hochschule Breslau. He put forth his kinetic theory of crystal growth, which became known as the
Kossel–Stranski model—Kossel independently proposed the same model.
Return to Berlin and later years
With the advance of the
Red Army, Stranski returned to Berlin to work at the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. As
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 ...
surrendered, Volmer was taken by force to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and Stranski took his place as the director of studies at Technische Hochschule Berlin's Department of Physical Chemistry. Despite the heavy damage caused by
Allied bombing, not without Stranski's assistance the Technische Hochschule Berlin, then renamed
Technische Universität Berlin was among the few that opened for the 1945 academic year.
In 1948–1949, Stranski was the dean of the Faculty of General and Engineering Sciences. In 1951–1953, Stranski was rector of the university; he had also previously held the position of vice rector. In 1953, he became deputy director of the
Fritz Haber Institute. Until 1963, Stranski taught at the
Free University of Berlin.
After the
Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 and the installment of a
communist government, Stranski was accused of links to the preceding pro-
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
régime and removed from the department that he established. It was not until the 1960s that he was re-accepted as a foreign member of the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and he would only return to Bulgaria from
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
in 1967. He died in Sofia in 1979, but was buried in Berlin.
Honours and awards
In 1965, Stranski was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry by
Georg-Maria Schwab, one of the few Bulgarians to be nominated for a Nobel in the sciences.
Throughout his life, he was honoured with awards such as the
German Chemical Society's August Wilhelm von Hofmann Silver Medal (1939), the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Cyril and Methodius Prize for Science (1940), the Great Cross of Merit of West Germany's
Order of Merit, as well as honorary doctorates from the
University of Breslau (1940) and the Free University of Berlin (1954). Stranski was also member of the
Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1939),
Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg (1940),
Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1959),
New York Academy of Sciences, and the
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1966).
Two modern institutes bear his name: the Stranski Laboratory for Physical und Theoretical Chemistry (''Stranski-Laboratorium für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie''; called ''Iwan N.-Stranski-Institut'' from 1967 to 2001) of Technische Universität Berlin, and the Stranski Institute of Metallurgy (''I.-N.-Stranski-Institut für Metallurgie'') in
Oberhausen.
In 1957, a new mineral mineral, CuZn
2(AsO
4)
2, was discovered by
Karl Hugo Strunz. In 1960, he named it after Stranski, , in recognition of Stranski's role as "father of crystal growth research".
A street in Sofia is also named after Ivan Stranski.
Selected bibliography
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* ''I. N. Stranski, L. Krastanov'', Zur Theorie der orientierten Ausscheidung von Ionenkristallen aufeinander, Sitzungsber. d. Akad. d. Wissensch. Wien, Math.-naturw. Kl. Abt. IIb, 146, 797 (1938)
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See also
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Premelting
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stranski, Ivan
Bulgarian physical chemists
Scientists from Sofia
1897 births
1979 deaths
Bulgarian people of German descent
Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin
Sofia University alumni
Academic staff of Sofia University
Corresponding Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
20th-century Bulgarian scientists
Bulgarian expatriates in Germany
Max Planck Institute directors