Hans Mueller (physicist)

Hans Mueller (1900-1965) was a physicist and professor at the MIT. He created the Mueller calculus.

Hans was born October 27, 1900, in Amriswil, canton Thurgau, Switzerland. His father was Ernst Müller and mother Mathilde Meier. Hans attended school in Frauenfeld and proceeded in 1919 to Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. He graduated with a teacher's diploma for science and mathematics in 1923. In graduate work his advisors were Peter Debye and Paul Scherrer.

In 1925 Mueller and Debye set out for a visit to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mueller was offered a position as instructor and in time became a popular professor. In 1928 he submitted his dissertation, On the Theory of Electric Charge and Coagulation of Colloids to ETH for the doctorate in physics. In 1935 he was promoted to associate professor. As a Guggenhiem Fellow he was at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in 1937-38. In 1942 he became a full professor.

In research, Mueller measured luminous intensity and studied polarization of light. He wrote several papers on Rochelle salts. The development of his matrix calculus was initially classified but he made an exposition to the Optical Society of America in 1948. His student Nathan Grier Park III wrote a thesis, Matrix Optics expounding the method.

Hans Mueller died June 10, 1965, in Belmont Massachusetts.

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