Herbert Fröhlich: A Physicist Ahead of His Time PDF
Preview Herbert Fröhlich: A Physicist Ahead of His Time
Springer Biographies G.J. Hyland Herbert Fröhlich A Physicist Ahead of His Time Springer Biographies More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13617 G.J. Hyland ö Herbert Fr hlich A Physicist Ahead of His Time ö With a foreword by Fanchon Fr hlich 123 G.J.Hyland ex-University of Warwick Coventry UK Springer Biographies ISBN 978-3-319-14850-2 ISBN 978-3-319-14851-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14851-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015931922 SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2015 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerInternationalPublishingAGSwitzerlandispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia (www.springer.com) This work is dedicated with esteem and gratitude to Fanchon Fröhlich, philosopher and artist—friend for 50 years Foreword It gives me very great pleasure to write a few words of introduction to this biog- raphy of my late husband, Herbert Fröhlich. When my good friend of many years, Gerard Hyland, a former student of Herbert(infacthislastPh.D.student)sharedwithmetheideaforthisbook,Iwas very happy to give him every assistance in piecing together all the available doc- umentation and photographs relating to Herbert’s career. It has been a longer journey than expected—books usually are!—but the result is a work that goes far beyondasimplenarrativeofoneman’slife.Thisbooktouchesuponawholeeraof physics research in Europe, setting it in the context of the dramatic political and military circumstances of the time. Herbert’s experiences, some of which I shared, clearly reveal how science and scientific curiosity are not to be extinguished by mere national enmities; how scientists—then as now—form a mutually self-sup- portingglobalcommunitythatisoftenabletoovercomethewhimsofdictatorsand other political exigencies in their pursuit of scientific progress. This biography also details the many interactions Herbert and I had with other active scientists and their families. (My strongest memories are of Richard Feyn- man, S.W. Hayter, Maurice Marois, and Erwin Schrödinger). I am filled with nostalgia as I look at the collected photos, read the anecdotes, and remember not only the many good times described herein, but also the sometimes more difficult ones. For the outsider they will be informative rather than emotive, but still a wonderfulrecordofadecisiveperiodoftwentieth-centuryscienceandsomeofthe people involved. Iamnotascientist,andmyunderstandingofHerbert’sworkisnotofatechnical kind, but rather conceptual, having had the benefit of many discussions with him after our marriage in 1950, particularly when his ideas about a particular problem were still being crystallized—discussions that often included a philosophical dimension.Thereceptionofhisworkandtherespectaccordedhimbythosebetter qualified than myself to judge its technical merit are ample testimony to its importance. The reader with a basic education in science will learn more in these pages about his many and varied contributions. These reveal that Herbert was— rather like Feynman, some of whose correspondence with my husband is vii viii Foreword reproducedinthisbook—amanofbroadinterests.Hefrequentlybegantoaddress one topic, which, having achieved some new insights and recorded these for publication, he would then drop in order to move on to another more challenging problem.Thesubtitleofthisbiography“APhysicistAheadofHisTime”resonates withmyimpressionthathefrequentlyleftthejigsawunfinished,butinaformthat allowed others to come along and complete it at a later date. IthankGerardforundertakingthisbiography,andforthemarvellousbookthat has resulted, in which I trust the reader will find enjoyment and inspiration. December 2014 Fanchon Fröhlich Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to fulsomely acknowledge the unstinting help I have received over very many years from Fröhlich’s widow, Fanchon, in the course of my docu- mentation of her late husband’s life and work, for providing me with valuable information and insights into his life and work, and for making available the photographs included in this biography. I am also indebted to former members of Fröhlich’s department in Liverpool for sharing their reminiscences with me—in particular,thelateDr.BrianHolland,thelateDr.RonaldHuby,Dr.HarryNewns, Dr.CharlesTerreaux—andtootherformercolleagueselsewhere,especiallyDr.Jiri Pokorný (Prague), Prof. Dr. Fritz Popp (Neuss), and Prof. Geoffrey Sewell (London). Thegenealogical assistanceofBarbara Staudacher(Rexingen),andthearchival assistance of Adrian Allen (former Librarian of Liverpool University), Alan Franklin (Manx National Heritage), Joanna McManus (Royal Society Librarian), Dr. Jagdish Mehra (Professor of Science and Humanities at the University of Houston), Angelika Mundorff (Museum Fürstenfeldbruck), Dr. Gerhard Neumeier (Stadtarchiv,Fürstenfeldbruck),andJosephineZilberkweit(Liverpool)isgratefully acknowledged. In addition, I wish to thank Helen Ireland, Peter Larkin, and Geoffrey Lewis (Warwick University Library), Prof. John Dainton, F.R.S. and Dr. Peter Rowlands (University of Liverpool), Dr. Brian Pollard (University of Bristol), and especially Dr. Laurence Caves (Southam), Dr. Mario Micallef (University of Warwick) and Anthony Teeluck (Hook) for their assistance in various ways. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Department of Special Col- lections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in making available material from the archivesoftheSocietyfortheProtectionofScienceandLearning,andtothankits successor organization, the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), for permission to reproduce some of the material in this book. LiberalusehasbeenmadeofunpublishedinterviewswithFröhlich,recordedby Profs. Haken and Wagner in Stuttgart, during the 1980s, which Fröhlich made ix x Acknowledgments available to me to supplement those recorded by myself in Liverpool around the same time. The collaboration during the 1970s with Prof. George Rowlands, a fellow memberoftheDepartmentofPhysicsattheUniversityofWarwick,andwithProf. Fred Cummings of the University of California at Riverside in extending some aspects of Fröhlich’s work on superfluid He4 is remembered with pleasure. It is a particular pleasure to thank my old friend and former colleague Claudio Ronchi for encouraging me to approach Springer Verlag, and to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable editorial assistance of Dr. Angela Lahee (Springer Verlag, Heidelberg) and of Charles Rayappan and Gajalakshmi Sundaram (Scien- tific Publishing Services, Chennai, India). Finally, I wish to sincerely thank my wife, Mercedes, for her help with proof- reading, the compilation of the index, and general word-processing matters.
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