Otto Laporte
Encyclopedia
Otto Laporte was a German-born American
physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics
, electromagnetic wave propagation theory, spectroscopy
, and fluid dynamics
. His name is lent to the Laporte rule
in spectroscopy and to the Otto Laporte Award
of the American Physical Society
.
in the 17th century. His father was an officer in the military. Before World War I
, they were stationed in the fortified cities of Mainz
(where Laporte was born), Cologne
, and Metz
, in which he received his early education. After the war started, they returned to Mainz.
In the spring of 1920, the family moved to Frankfurt
, staying just one year, where Laporte attended the University of Frankfurt. There, he was influenced by the mathematicians Arthur Schoenflies, Ludwig Bieberbach
, and Ernst Hellinger, and the physicists Max Born
, and Alfred Lande
. In the summer of 1921, the Laporte family moved to Munich, where Laporte became a student of Arnold Sommerfeld
at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
(LMU). Max Born had sent an enthusiastic recommendation of Laporte to Sommerfeld. At that time, Wolfgang Pauli
was an assistant to Sommerfeld and Sommerfeld’s students included Werner Heisenberg
, Gregor Wentzel
, Karl Herzfeld
, and Paul Peter Ewald
– all of whom would go on to become famous physicists in their own right. Laporte’s first independent research was on the diffraction of electromagnetic waves around a spherical body and this was the basis for his doctoral thesis under Sommerfeld. His doctorate was granted in 1924. While at LMU, he also analyzed various spectra and made a contribution to understanding atomic structure. Through these research efforts, he discovered what is known in spectroscopy as the Laporte rule
.
. There, he was influenced by William F. Meggers, Gregory Breit
, Merle A. Tuve, Paul D. Foote, F. L. Mohler, Arthur Ruark, and Harold Urey
.
After his fellowship, Laporte was invited, in 1926, to the University of Michigan
by Harrison M. Randall, chairman of the physics department. Laporte served as an instructor for one year and then was promoted to assistant professor. It was the intention of Randall to build up the theoretical physics capabilities at Michigan, so in 1927 Laporte was joined by George Eugene Uhlenbeck
, Samuel Abraham Goudsmit
, and David M. Dennison
, who remained at Michigan for many years.
In 1928, Laporte was invited as a guest lecturer at the Imperial University of Kyoto. While in Japan
, he got an urgent message from Sommerfeld, who was going to the United States and wanted Laporte to lecture in his place at LMU. Laporte had to cut his visit short and make a two-week, non-stop trip via the Trans-Siberian Railway
in order to arrive in Munich in time. His next visits to Japan were as a lecturer at the University of Tokyo
, on leave from Michigan, in 1933 and 1937; during these periods, he learned to speak Japanese and understand their culture. In between these visits, in 1935, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. From 1954 to 1955, and again from 1961 to 1963, he was a scientific advisor to the American Ambassador in Tokyo. His activities resulted in a landmark atomic energy agreement between the United States and Japan, and he was cited by the U.S. State Department for his key contributions. Between his foreign services in Japan, he served the United States in Germany. From 1949 to 1950, Laporte was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army of Occupation in Heidelberg
.
It was in 1944 that Laporte added a new area to his professional activities – fluid dynamics
, which includes the sub-field of hydrodynamics. That year, he published a paper giving an exact solution to the problem of the lift of an airfoil of elliptical outline. Two years later, he conducted experiments in fluid dynamics with an advanced design shock tube
facility put together under Lincoln Smith at Michigan. When Smith left in 1946, Laporte took over the facility. The shock tube allowed him to make spectroscopic measurements in new regions through the shock heating of gases. The addition of fluid dynamics to his research activities was in reality a convergence of a number of his professional interests in quantum mechanics and spectroscopy. And his time at LMU influenced this, as Sommerfeld had done work in hydrodynamics and Heisenberg’s doctoral thesis was on hydrodynamics. Laporte was one of the charter members of the American Physical Society’s
Division of Fluid Dynamics, and he served as the division's chairman in 1965.
Laporte had a number of hobbies, which included playing the piano and horticulture, specializing in plants of the cactus and the euphorbia families.
Otto Laporte died in 1971 in Ann Arbor, Michigan of stomach cancer leaving Adele Laporte (wife), Irene Laporte, Claire Laporte, and Marianne Laporte (daughters).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, electromagnetic wave propagation theory, spectroscopy
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...
, and fluid dynamics
Fluid dynamics
In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
. His name is lent to the Laporte rule
Laporte rule
The Laporte rule is a spectroscopic selection rule. It states that electronic transitions that conserve either symmetry or asymmetry with respect to an inversion center — i.e., g → g, or u → u respectively—are forbidden...
in spectroscopy and to the Otto Laporte Award
Otto Laporte Award
The Otto Laporte Award was an annual award by the American Physical Society to "recognize outstanding contributions to fluid dynamics" and to honour Otto Laporte . It was established as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 1972, and became an APS award in...
of the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
.
Education
Laporte’s ancestors came from French Huguenot families who fled to SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in the 17th century. His father was an officer in the military. Before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, they were stationed in the fortified cities of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
(where Laporte was born), Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
, in which he received his early education. After the war started, they returned to Mainz.
In the spring of 1920, the family moved to Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, staying just one year, where Laporte attended the University of Frankfurt. There, he was influenced by the mathematicians Arthur Schoenflies, Ludwig Bieberbach
Ludwig Bieberbach
Ludwig Georg Elias Moses Bieberbach was a German mathematician.-Biography:Born in Goddelau, near Darmstadt, he studied at Heidelberg and under Felix Klein at Göttingen, receiving his doctorate in 1910. His dissertation was titled On the theory of automorphic functions...
, and Ernst Hellinger, and the physicists Max Born
Max Born
Max Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
, and Alfred Lande
Alfred Landé
Alfred Landé was a German-American physicist known for his contributions to quantum theory. He is responsible for the Landé g-factor an explanation of the Zeeman Effect.-Life and Achievements:...
. In the summer of 1921, the Laporte family moved to Munich, where Laporte became a student of Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
(LMU). Max Born had sent an enthusiastic recommendation of Laporte to Sommerfeld. At that time, Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after being nominated by Albert Einstein, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle or...
was an assistant to Sommerfeld and Sommerfeld’s students included Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
, Gregor Wentzel
Gregor Wentzel
Gregor Wentzel was a German physicist known for development of quantum mechanics. Wentzel, Hendrik Kramers, and Léon Brillouin developed the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation in 1926...
, Karl Herzfeld
Karl Herzfeld
Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld was an Austrian-American physicist.-Education:...
, and Paul Peter Ewald
Paul Peter Ewald
Paul Peter Ewald was a German-born U.S. crystallographer and physicist, a pioneer of X-ray diffraction methods.-Education:...
– all of whom would go on to become famous physicists in their own right. Laporte’s first independent research was on the diffraction of electromagnetic waves around a spherical body and this was the basis for his doctoral thesis under Sommerfeld. His doctorate was granted in 1924. While at LMU, he also analyzed various spectra and made a contribution to understanding atomic structure. Through these research efforts, he discovered what is known in spectroscopy as the Laporte rule
Laporte rule
The Laporte rule is a spectroscopic selection rule. It states that electronic transitions that conserve either symmetry or asymmetry with respect to an inversion center — i.e., g → g, or u → u respectively—are forbidden...
.
Life and work
When Sommerfeld was a visiting professor in the United States, he learned about the International Education Board fellowships set up through the Rockefeller Foundation. Sommerfeld heartily recommended Laporte for a fellowship, which was granted to him for two years starting in 1924. Laporte used the fellowship to do postdoctoral studies and research at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. There, he was influenced by William F. Meggers, Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit was a Russian-born American physicist and professor at universities in New York, Wisconsin, Yale, and Buffalo...
, Merle A. Tuve, Paul D. Foote, F. L. Mohler, Arthur Ruark, and Harold Urey
Harold Urey
Harold Clayton Urey was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934...
.
After his fellowship, Laporte was invited, in 1926, to the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
by Harrison M. Randall, chairman of the physics department. Laporte served as an instructor for one year and then was promoted to assistant professor. It was the intention of Randall to build up the theoretical physics capabilities at Michigan, so in 1927 Laporte was joined by George Eugene Uhlenbeck
George Eugene Uhlenbeck
George Eugene Uhlenbeck was a Dutch-American theoretical physicist.-Background and education:George Uhlenbeck was the son of Eugenius and Anne Beeger Uhlenbeck...
, Samuel Abraham Goudsmit
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925.-Biography:...
, and David M. Dennison
David M. Dennison
David Mathias Dennison was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, and the physics of molecular structure.-Education:...
, who remained at Michigan for many years.
In 1928, Laporte was invited as a guest lecturer at the Imperial University of Kyoto. While in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, he got an urgent message from Sommerfeld, who was going to the United States and wanted Laporte to lecture in his place at LMU. Laporte had to cut his visit short and make a two-week, non-stop trip via the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
in order to arrive in Munich in time. His next visits to Japan were as a lecturer at the University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
, on leave from Michigan, in 1933 and 1937; during these periods, he learned to speak Japanese and understand their culture. In between these visits, in 1935, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. From 1954 to 1955, and again from 1961 to 1963, he was a scientific advisor to the American Ambassador in Tokyo. His activities resulted in a landmark atomic energy agreement between the United States and Japan, and he was cited by the U.S. State Department for his key contributions. Between his foreign services in Japan, he served the United States in Germany. From 1949 to 1950, Laporte was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army of Occupation in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
.
It was in 1944 that Laporte added a new area to his professional activities – fluid dynamics
Fluid dynamics
In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
, which includes the sub-field of hydrodynamics. That year, he published a paper giving an exact solution to the problem of the lift of an airfoil of elliptical outline. Two years later, he conducted experiments in fluid dynamics with an advanced design shock tube
Shock tube
For the pyrotechnic initiator, see Shock tube detonatorThe shock tube is an instrument used to replicate and direct blast waves at a sensor or a model in order to simulate actual explosions and their effects, usually on a smaller scale...
facility put together under Lincoln Smith at Michigan. When Smith left in 1946, Laporte took over the facility. The shock tube allowed him to make spectroscopic measurements in new regions through the shock heating of gases. The addition of fluid dynamics to his research activities was in reality a convergence of a number of his professional interests in quantum mechanics and spectroscopy. And his time at LMU influenced this, as Sommerfeld had done work in hydrodynamics and Heisenberg’s doctoral thesis was on hydrodynamics. Laporte was one of the charter members of the American Physical Society’s
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
Division of Fluid Dynamics, and he served as the division's chairman in 1965.
Laporte had a number of hobbies, which included playing the piano and horticulture, specializing in plants of the cactus and the euphorbia families.
Otto Laporte died in 1971 in Ann Arbor, Michigan of stomach cancer leaving Adele Laporte (wife), Irene Laporte, Claire Laporte, and Marianne Laporte (daughters).
Honors
- 1971 – First person posthumously elected to the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
- 1972 – American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics, established the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship (which in 1985 was changed into the Otto Laporte AwardOtto Laporte AwardThe Otto Laporte Award was an annual award by the American Physical Society to "recognize outstanding contributions to fluid dynamics" and to honour Otto Laporte . It was established as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 1972, and became an APS award in...
)
Books
- Otto Laporte Theorie der Multiplettspektren Offprint from Walter Grotrian et al., Grundlagen der Astrophysik Vol. 3, Part 2 (Springer, 1930)
- Otto Laporte and R. C. F. Bartels An Investigation of the Exact Solution of the Linearized Equations for the Flow Past Conical Bodies (Michigan University Ann Arbor Office of Research Administration, 1948)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, translated from the first German edition by Otto Laporte and Peter A. Moldauer Optics - Lectures on Theoretical Physics Volume IV (Academic Press, 1964) [German title and publisher: Arnold Sommerfeld Optik - Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik Band 4 (Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1950)]
Selected literature
- Otto Laporte Zur Theorie der Ausbreitung elektromagnetischer Wellen auf der Erdkugel, Annalen der Physik, 375 (8) 595-616 (1923).
- J. E. Mack, Otto Laporte, and R. J. Lang The Application of the X-Ray Laws to Optical Spectra of Higher Rank, and the Classification of Ga IV and Ge V, Phys. Rev. 31 (5) 748 - 772 (1928). Mack and Laporte are cited as being at the University of Michigan. Lang is cited as being at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Article received February 1928.
- O. Laporte and D. R. Inglis Resonance Separations in Configurations of type p5s and d9s, Phys. Rev. 35 (11) 1337 - 1341 (1930). The authors are cited as being at the Department of Physics, University of Michigan. Article received April 21, 1930.
- Otto Laporte and George E. Uhlenbeck Application of Spinor Analysis to the Maxwell and Dirac Equations, Phys. Rev. 37 (11) 1380 - 1397 (1931). The author is cited as being at the Department of Physics, University of Michigan. Article received February 24, 1931.
- Otto Laporte, George R. Miller, and Ralph A. Sawyer The First Spark Spectrum of Rubidium (Rb II), Phys. Rev. 38 (5) 843 - 853 (1931). The authors are cited as being at the University of Michigan. Article received July 23, 1931.
- O. Laporte, G. R. Miller, and R. A. Sawyer The First Spark Spectrum of Caesium (Cs II) Phys. Rev. 39 (3) 458 - 466 (1932). The authors are cited as being at the University of Michigan. Article received December 17, 1931.
- Otto Laporte Absorption Coefficients for Thermal Neutrons. Remarks on the Preceding Paper of C. T. Zahn, Phys. Rev. 52 (2) 72 - 74 (1937). The author is cited as being at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Article received April 7, 1937.
- W. R. Johnson and Otto Laporte Interaction of Cylindrical Sound Waves with a Stationary Shock Wave, Physics of Fluids 1 (2) 82-94 (1958). The author is cites as being at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Article received February 12, 1958.
- Tien Sun Chang and Otto Laporte Reflection of Strong Blast Waves, Physics of Fluids 7 (8) 1225-1232 (1964). Chang is cited as being at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia. Laporte is cited as being at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- O. Laporte and R. G. Fowler Resistance of a Plasma Slab between Juxtaposed Disk Electrodes, Phys. Rev. 148 (1) 170 - 175 (1966). Laporte is cited as being at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fowler is cited as being at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. Article received March 9, 1966.
- Otto Laporte On Kepler Ellipses Starting from a Point in Space, American Journal of Physics 38 (7) 837-840 (1970). The author is cited as being at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Article received November 18, 1969.
Further reading
- Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 2 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900 – 1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties. (Springer, 2001) ISBN 0-387-95175-X
External links
- Otto Laporte - Crane, H. R. & Dennison, D. M., Otto Laporte, July 23, 1902 - March 28, 1971. Biograph. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 50(8), 269-285.
- Oral History interview transcript with Otto Laporte January 29 - 30, 1964, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives