Richard Becker (physicist)

Richard Becker (3 December 1887 in Hamburg – 16 March 1955 in Bad Schwalbach) was a German theoretical physicist who made contributions in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, superconductivity, and quantum electrodynamics.

Becker’s studies in zoology started in 1906 at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, where he earned his doctorate in 1909 under August Weismann. After hearing lectures by Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Becker turned his professional interest to physics. He also studied physics under Max Born at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, and Max Planck and Albert Einstein at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Becker competed his Habilitation in 1922 under Planck.

During World War I, Becker worked in German industrial organizations, including the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie and the lighting manufacturer Osram.

In 1919, Sommerfeld recommended three of his students as qualified to become physics assistant to the mathematician David Hilbert at Göttingen. The list included Adolf Kratzer, Becker, and Franz Pauer. Kratzer, first on the list, went to Göttingen.

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