Philipp Lenard

Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard in 1900
Born	Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (1862-06-07)7 June 1862 Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire
Died	20 May 1947(1947-05-20) (aged 84) Messelhausen (), Germany
Citizenship	Hungarian in Austria-Hungary (1862–1907), German (1907–1947)
Nationality	Carpathian German
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Budapest University of Breslau University of Aachen University of Heidelberg University of Kiel
Alma mater	University of Heidelberg
Doctoral advisor	R. Bunsen, G. H. Quincke
Known for	Cathode rays
Notable awards	Matteucci Medal (1896) Rumford Medal (1896) Nobel Prize for Physics (1905)

Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (7 June 1862 – 20 May 1947) was a German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties. He was a nationalist and anti-Semite; as an active proponent of the Nazi ideology, he had supported Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and was an important role model for the "Deutsche Physik" movement during the Nazi period. Notably, he had labeled Albert Einstein's contributions to science as constituting "Jewish physics".

Philipp Lenard was born in Pressburg (today's Bratislava), on 7 June 1862. The Lenard family had originally come from Tyrol in the 17th century, and Lenard's parents were German-speakers. His father, Philipp von Lenardis (1812–1896), was a wine-merchant in Pressburg. His mother was Antonie Baumann (1831–1865). The young Lenard studied at the Pozsonyi Királyi Katolikus Főgymnasium (today Gamča) and as he writes it in his autobiography, this made a big impression on him (especially the personality of his teacher, Virgil Klatt). In 1880 he studied physics and chemistry in Vienna and in Budapest. In 1882 Lenard left Budapest and returned to Pressburg, but in 1883 moved to Heidelberg after his tender for an assistant's position in the University of Budapest was refused. In Heidelberg he studied under the illustrious Robert Bunsen, interrupted by one semester in Berlin with Hermann von Helmholtz, and obtained his doctoral degree in 1886. In 1887 he worked again in Budapest under Loránd Eötvös as a demonstrator. After posts at Aachen, Bonn, Breslau, Heidelberg (1896–1898), and Kiel (1898–1907), he returned finally to the University of Heidelberg in 1907 as the head of the Philipp Lenard Institute. In 1905 Lenard became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and in 1907 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.