Fritz Sauter | |
---|---|
Born |
Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary |
9 June 1906
Died | 24 May 1983 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany |
(aged 76)
Nationality | Austrian |
Alma mater | University of Innsbruck |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physicist |
Institutions |
University of Munich Technical University of Berlin University of Königsberg |
Doctoral advisor | Arthur March |
Other academic advisors |
Arnold Sommerfeld Richard Becker |
Doctoral students |
Herbert Kroemer Friedrich Bopp |
Fritz Eduard Josef Maria Sauter (German: [ˈzaʊtɐ]; 9 June 1906 – 24 May 1983) was an Austrian-German physicist who worked mostly in quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics.
From 1924 to 1928, Sauter studied mathematics and physics at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck. He received his doctorate in 1928 under Arthur March, with a thesis on Kirchoff’s theory of diffraction. After graduation, he did postdoctoral studies with Arnold Sommerfeld and was his assistant at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. In January 1931, Sommerfeld recommended Sauter to Max Born, director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Georg-August University of Göttingen.
From 1931 to 1934, Sauter was an assistant to Richard Becker at the Technische Hochschule Berlin (today Technische Universität Berlin) in Charlottenburg. From 1933, he was also a lecturer at Berlin. While at Berlin, he did work on atomic physics and Dirac’s theory of electrons.
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on 30 January 1933 and Max Born took leave as director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Georg-August University of Göttingen on 1 July of that year and emigrated to England. In 1934, Sauter, while only a Privatdozent, was brought in to Göttingen as acting director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics and lecturer on theoretical physics; Born was officially retired under the Nuremberg Laws on 31 December 1935. Sauter continued in this role until 1936, when Becker was appointed director, after the Reichserziehungsministerium (Reich Education Ministry) eliminated his position at Berlin and reassigned him to Göttingen.