Wolfgang Paul

2025-04-02T22:24:36Z

153.90.20.63: /* Academic career */

{{short description|German physicist}}
{{about|the German physicist|the Austrian-Swiss physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1945|Wolfgang Pauli|the German footballer|Wolfgang Paul (footballer)}}

{{Infobox scientist
| name = Wolfgang Paul
| image = Wolfgang Paul.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|8|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Lorenzkirch]], [[Kingdom of Saxony|Saxony]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|12|7|1913|8|10|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Bonn]], [[North Rhine-Westphalia]], [[Germany]]
| nationality = German
| field = [[Physics]]
| work_institution = [[University of Bonn]] [[University of Kiel]]
| alma_mater = [[Technical University of Munich]] [[Technische Universität Berlin]] [[University of Göttingen]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Hans Kopfermann]]
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = [[Ion trap]]s [[Quadrupole mass analyzer]]
| prizes = {{nowrap|[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1989) [[Dirac Medal and Lecture|UNSW Dirac Medal]] (1992)}}
| religion =
| footnotes = He humorously referred to [[Wolfgang Pauli]] as his "imaginary part".<ref>Gerald E. Brown and Chang-Hwan Lee (2006): ''Hans Bethe and His Physics'', World Scientific, {{ISBN|981-256-610-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HaL-NNHBmM0C&pg=PA47 p. 338]</ref>
}}

'''Wolfgang Paul''' ({{IPA|de|ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ˈpaʊ̯l|-|De-Wolfgang Paul.ogg}}; 10 August 1913 – 7 December 1993) was a German [[physicist]], who co-developed the non-magnetic quadrupole mass filter which laid the foundation for what is now called an [[ion trap]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Toschek, Peter E.|title=Obituary: Wolfgang Paul|journal=Physics Today|date=July 1994|volume=47|issue=7|pages=76–77|doi=10.1063/1.2808585|bibcode = 1994PhT....47g..76T |doi-access=free}}</ref> He shared one-half of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1989 for this work with [[Hans Georg Dehmelt]]; the other half of the Prize in that year was awarded to [[Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr.]]

==Early life==
Wolfgang Paul was born on 10 August 1913 in [[Lorenzkirch]], [[Germany]]. He grew up in Munich where his father was a professor of [[medical chemistry|pharmaceutical chemistry]]. After the first few years at the [[Technical University of Munich]], he changed to [[Technische Universität Berlin]] in 1934 where he finished his Diploma in 1937 at the group of [[Hans Geiger]]. He followed his doctorate adviser [[Hans Kopfermann]] to the [[University of Kiel]], and after being drafted to the air force, he finished his PhD in 1940 at [[Technische Universität Berlin]].

During [[World War II]], he researched [[isotope separation]], which is necessary to produce [[fissionable]] material for use in making [[nuclear weapon]]s.

==Academic career==
For several years, he was a private lecturer at the [[University of Göttingen]] with Hans Kopfermann. He became a professor of [[experimental physics|Experimental Physics]] at the [[University of Bonn]] and stayed there from 1952 until 1993. For two years, from 1965 to 1967, he was director of the Division of [[Nuclear Physics]] at [[CERN]]. In 1970, he spent some weeks as Morris Loeb lecturer at [[Harvard University]]. He lectured in 1978 as distinguished scientist at the FERMI Institute of the [[University of Chicago]] and in a similar position at [[The University of Tokyo]]. From 1981, he was Professor Emeritus at the [[Bonn University]].

==Scientific results==
He developed techniques for trapping charged particles in mass spectrometry by electric quadrupole fields in the 1950s.<ref name="Paul1990">{{cite journal|last1=Paul|first1=Wolfgang|title=Electromagnetic traps for charged and neutral particles|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|volume=62|issue=3|year=1990|pages=531–540|issn=0034-6861|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.62.531|bibcode=1990RvMP...62..531P|citeseerx=10.1.1.487.6288}}</ref> [[Paul trap]]s are used extensively today to contain and study ions. He developed [[molecular beam]] lenses and worked on a 500 MeV electron synchrotron, followed by one at 2500 MeV in 1965. Later he worked on containing slow neutrons in magnetic storage rings, measuring the free neutron lifetime.

He humorously referred to [[Wolfgang Pauli]] as his [[imaginary part]] if their surnames were considered as complex numbers.<ref name="BrownLee2006">{{cite book|author1=Gerald Edward Brown|author2=Chang-Hwan Lee|title=Hans Bethe and His Physics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WshoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47|year=2006|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-256-609-6|pages=47–}}</ref>

==Göttingen Manifesto==
In 1957, Paul was a signatory of the [[Göttinger Manifest|Göttingen Manifesto]], a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany against arming the West German army with [[tactical nuclear weapon]]s.

==Sons==
His son [[Stephan Paul]] is a professor of experimental physics at the [[Technical University of Munich]]. His son [[Lorenz Paul]] is a professor of physics at the [[University of Wuppertal]].

==Works==
*{{cite journal|title = Electromagnetic Traps for Charged and Neutral Particles|author = Paul, Wolfgang|journal = Reviews of Modern Physics|volume = 62|issue = 3|pages = 531–540|year =1990|doi = 10.1103/RevModPhys.62.531|bibcode=1990RvMP...62..531P|citeseerx = 10.1.1.487.6288}}
*{{cite journal|title = Ein neues Massenspektrometer ohne Magnetfeld|author1=Paul, Wolfgang |author2=Steinwedel, Helmut | journal = Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A|volume = 8|issue = 7|pages = 448–450|year =1953|bibcode = 1953ZNatA...8..448P|doi = 10.1515/zna-1953-0710 |s2cid=96549388 |doi-access = free}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Scholia|author}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1989 ''Electromagnetic Traps for Charged and Neutral Particles''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160422112359/https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/wolfgang-paul-award.html Wolfgang Paul Prize], awarded by the [[Alexander von Humboldt Foundation]] in November 2001. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160422112359/https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/wolfgang-paul-award.html List of award winners.]
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1989 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Wolfgang}}
[[Category:20th-century German physicists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Bonn]]
[[Category:Nuclear program of Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Technical University of Munich alumni]]
[[Category:Technische Universität Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Mass spectrometrists]]
[[Category:People associated with CERN]]

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Wolfgang Paul