Arthur R. von Hippel

Arthur Robert von Hippel (November 19, 1898 – December 31, 2003) was a German American materials scientist and physicist. Von Hippel was a pioneer in the study of dielectrics, ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, and semiconductors and was a codeveloper of radar during World War II.

Von Hippel was born in , Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on November 19, 1898. He graduated in physics from the University of Göttingen, where he was taught by many eminent figures of mathematics and physics of the time, including David Hilbert, Richard Courant, Peter Debye, Robert Pohl, Max Born, Gustav Hertz, and Nobel Prize winner James Franck (who was his thesis supervisor). Von Hippel received his Ph.D. in physics in 1924, and in 1930 married Franck's daughter, Dagmar.

In 1933, with the ascension of Nazis to power in Germany, von Hippel decided to move to another country, mainly because his wife was Jewish, but due also to his political stance against the new regime. In 1934 he was able to secure a position with the University at Istanbul, Turkey, then spent a year in Denmark, working at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. In 1936, accepting an invitation by Karl Compton, von Hippel moved again, this time to the U.S., and became an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During this time, he studied the properties and behavior of high voltage gas discharges, using positive and negative Lichtenberg figures recorded on photographic film. In 1940 he founded the Laboratory for Insulation Research, which soon became one of the most important research and education centers in this area in the world.