Paul Ehrenfest's rough road to Leiden: a physicist's search for a position, 1904-1912

Authors
Publication date 2007
Journal Physics in Perspective
Volume | Issue number 9 | 2
Pages (from-to) 186-211
Number of pages 28
Organisations
  • Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Institute of Physics (IoP) - Institute for Theoretical Physics Amsterdam (ITFA)
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR)
Abstract Paul Ehrenfest (1880-1933) received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Vienna in 1904 and moved with his wife and young daughter to St. Petersburg in 1907, where he remained until he succeeded Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928) in the chair of theoretical physics at the University of Leiden in 1912. Drawing upon Ehrenfest’s correspondence of the period, we first examine Ehrenfest’s difficult and insecure years in St. Petersburg and then discuss his unsuccessful attempts to obtain a position elsewhere before he was appointed as Lorentz’s successor in Leiden.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-006-0287-1
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