Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau [University of Breslau]

Interviewed by
Thomas S. Kuhn
Interview dates
May 29 and 30, 1962
Location
Stern's home, Berkeley, California
Abstract

This interview was conducted as part of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics project, which includes tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with ca. 100 atomic and quantum physicists. Subjects discuss their family backgrounds, how they became interested in physics, their educations, people who influenced them, their careers including social influences on the conditions of research, and the state of atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics during the period in which they worked. Discussions of scientific matters relate to work that was done between approximately 1900 and 1930, with an emphasis on the discovery and interpretations of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Also prominently mentioned are: Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein, James Franck, Rudolf Walther Ladenburg, Otto Lummer, Walther Nernst, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Planck, Ernest Pringsheim, Sackur, Erwin Schrodinger, Tetrode, John Joseph Thomson; and Universitat Breslau.

Interviewed by
Thomas S. Kuhn and Mark Kac
Interview date
Location
Rockefeller Institute, New York City, New York
Abstract

Part of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics oral history collection, which includes tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with circa 100 atomic and quantum physicists. Subjects discuss their family backgrounds, how they became interested in physics, their educations, people who influenced them, their careers including social influences on the conditions of research, and the state of atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics during the period in which they worked. Discussions of scientific matters relate to work that was done between approximately 1900 and 1930, with an emphasis on the discovery and interpretations of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Also prominently mentioned are: Harald Bohr, Niels Henrik David Bohr, Max Born, Peter Josef William Debye, Paul Sophus Epstein, Peter Paul Ewald, Werner Heisenberg, David Hilbert, Ernst Pascual Jordan, Theodore von Kármán, Lev Davidovich Landau, Hermann Minkowski, Walther Ritz, Carl Runge, Arnold Sommerfeld, Ferdinand Springer, Woldemar Voigt, John Von Neumann; Universität Breslau, and Universität Göttingen.