Max von Laue | |
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Laue in 1929
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Born |
Max Theodor Felix Laue 9 October 1879 Pfaffendorf, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
Died | 24 April 1960 West Berlin, West Germany |
(aged 80)
Nationality | German |
Alma mater |
University of Strasbourg University of Göttingen University of Munich University of Berlin |
Known for | Diffraction of X-rays |
Awards | Nobel Prize for Physics (1914) Matteucci Medal (1914) Max Planck Medal (1932) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions |
University of Zürich University of Frankfurt University of Berlin Max Planck Institute |
Doctoral advisor |
Max Planck Arnold Sommerfeld |
Doctoral students |
Leó Szilárd Friedrich Beck Max Kohler Erna Weber |
Other notable students | Fritz London |
Max Theodor Felix von Laue (9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. In addition to his scientific endeavors with contributions in optics, crystallography, quantum theory, superconductivity, and the theory of relativity, he had a number of administrative positions which advanced and guided German scientific research and development during four decades. A strong objector to National Socialism, he was instrumental in re-establishing and organizing German science after World War II.
Laue was born in Pfaffendorf, now part of Koblenz, to Julius Laue and Minna Zerrenner. In 1898, after passing his Abitur in Strassburg, he began his compulsory year of military service, after which in 1899 he started to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the University of Strassburg, the University of Göttingen, and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). At Göttingen, he was greatly influenced by the physicists Woldemar Voigt and Max Abraham and the mathematician David Hilbert. After only one semester at Munich, he went to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Berlin in 1902. There, he studied under Max Planck, who gave birth to the quantum theory revolution on 14 December 1900, when he delivered his famous paper before the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. At Berlin, Laue attended lectures by Otto Lummer on heat radiation and interference spectroscopy, the influence of which can be seen in Laue’s dissertation on interference phenomena in plane-parallel plates, for which he received his doctorate in 1903. Thereafter, Laue spent 1903 to 1905 at Göttingen. Laue completed his Habilitation in 1906 under Arnold Sommerfeld at LMU.