Joseph Joshua Weiss
Encyclopedia
Joseph Joshua Weiss (30 August 1905 - 9 April 1972) was a Jewish-Austrian chemist and Professor at the Newcastle University. He was a pioneer in the field of radiation and photochemistry
Weiss was born in 1905 in Austria
. He had obtained a Dipl.Ing. degree in the Technische Hochschule
in Vienna
. He entered the Textile Institute at Sorau in 1928 and was the head of the chemistry department there. He left his post two years later to become an assistant to the German chemist Fritz Haber
at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Elektrochemistry in Berlin. Together they discovered the Haber-Weiss reaction. He fled with Haber (who was Jewish) from Nazi Germany to Cambridge in 1933. He later moved to University College London
, where he got his Ph.d in 1935 from Prof Frederick George Donnan. in 1937 he started teaching at the King's College in Durham, which later became the Newcastle University.
In 1956 he was appointed a professor of Radiation Chemistry at the Newcastle University
In 1968 he received an honorary degree from the Technical University of Berlin. In 1970 he received the Marie Curie Medal of the Curie Institute
.
In 1972 the Association for Radiation Research established the Weiss Medal, named after him.
In 1942 he married Frances Sonia Lawson.
Weiss was born in 1905 in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He had obtained a Dipl.Ing. degree in the Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule is what an Institute of Technology used to be called in German-speaking countries, as well as in the Netherlands, before most of them changed their name to Technische Universität or Technische Universiteit in the 1970s and in the...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He entered the Textile Institute at Sorau in 1928 and was the head of the chemistry department there. He left his post two years later to become an assistant to the German chemist Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia, important for fertilizers and explosives. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid...
at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Elektrochemistry in Berlin. Together they discovered the Haber-Weiss reaction. He fled with Haber (who was Jewish) from Nazi Germany to Cambridge in 1933. He later moved to University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, where he got his Ph.d in 1935 from Prof Frederick George Donnan. in 1937 he started teaching at the King's College in Durham, which later became the Newcastle University.
In 1956 he was appointed a professor of Radiation Chemistry at the Newcastle University
In 1968 he received an honorary degree from the Technical University of Berlin. In 1970 he received the Marie Curie Medal of the Curie Institute
Curie Institute (Paris)
thumb|Centre of protontherapyInstitut Curie is one of the leading medical, biological and biophysical research centres in the world.It is a private non-profit foundation operating a research center on biophysics, cell biology and oncology and a hospital specialized in treatment of cancer...
.
In 1972 the Association for Radiation Research established the Weiss Medal, named after him.
In 1942 he married Frances Sonia Lawson.
See also
- Schicksale und Karrieren: Gedenkbuch für die von den Nationalsozialisten aus der Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft vertriebenen Forscherinnen und Forscher, by Reinhard Rürup, Michael Schüring, Wallstein Verlag, 2008. Page 353.
External links
- Professor J. J. Weiss, 1905-1972, International Journal of Radiation Biology, Volume 22, Issue 4 October 1972 , pages 311 - 312. prof Greg Scholes.
- The Weiss medal at the Association for Radiation Research website