Prussian Academy of Sciences

Only after all these publications did Einstein s academic career begin privatdozent in Berne, 1908 associate professor at the University of Zurich, 1909, the year of his first honorai y degree (Geneva) full professor at Karl Ferdinand University, Prague, 1911 professor at the ETH, 1912 professor and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin, 1914-1932, where he arrived four months before the outbreak of World War I. 

The proposal of Einstein was not accepted easily. Even as late as 1913, Planck himself, when joining other distinguished German physicists in recommending Einstein s appointment to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, would write... 

Spring. Erwin Freundlich (Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory) prepares for the observation of the total solar eclipse of August 21, 1914. He receives 2000 Marks (of that time) from the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, and then 3000 Marks from the firm Krupp. He buys the best optical equipment for parallactic measures, those coming from the specialized optical firms of Iena (and much better than Eddington s equipment of the eclipse of 1919). 

IN this chapter we shall develop a rather more general conception of the application of the older laws of thermodynamics and of the new Heat Theorem. We shall limit ourselves essentially to condensed systems we have dealt with gases sufficiently fully in Chapters X and XIII. Moreover, for anyone who accepts the theory of degeneration described in the previous chapter there is no longer any difference, as far as the application of our Heat Theorem is concerned, between condensed and gaseous systems. The substance of the following discussion may be found in a paper (93) laid before the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1913. 

As is the case with many creative minds, van t HofPs career initially encountered many roadblocks, mostly related to the ignorance of the scientific establishment. Unemployed for two years after receiving his doctorate, he eventually took a teaching job in physics at the veterinary school in Utrecht. Success finally came in 1877 when the newly founded University of Amsterdam offered him a lectureship the next year he became a professor of chemistry at the same institute. Although his international reputation led to the formation of a new chemical laboratory at the Amsterdam school, which was completed in 1891, he moved to Berfin in 1896 as both a university professor and member of the prestigious Prussian Academy of Science. 

I establish a foundation which will carry the name "Emil-Fischer-Stiftung". It will be provided with a capital of 750,000 Marks. My heirs will take this sum from the better shares of my estate...and dedicate it Ito the foundation]. The profit of this capital will be used to support young chemists who work in organic, inorganic or physical chemistry in case of doubt members of the chemical institute in Berlin, which I was in charge of, with qualifications equivalent to those of other applicants, will be preferred. This foundation will be attached to and administered by the physical-mathematical class of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. 

Jacobus Henricus van t Hoff (1852-1911) a Dutch physical and organic chemist (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901). His research work concentrated on chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, osmotic pressure, and crystallography. He is one of the founders of the discipline of physical chemistry. He explained the phenomenon of optical activity by assuming that the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and their neighbors were directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron, applied the laws of thermodynamics to chemical equilibriums, showed similarities between the behavior of dilute solutions and gases, and worked on the theory of the dissociation of electrolytes. In 1878, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, and in 1896 he became professor at the Prussian Academy of Science at Berlin, where he worked until his death. 

While Volmer was not a follower of the Nazi system, and consequently e.g., his election to the Prussian Academy of Science was blocked, he had to spend 10 years in the Soviet Union after 1945. He was invited as several other German scientists to the USSR. He worked on deuterium production and nuclear waste processing in the research group of Gustav Hertz (1887-1975, Nobel prize 1925). As many other colleagues, he was released in 1955 and was permitted to return to GDR. He became professor of physical chemistry at Humboldt University (East-Berlin) and president of the East-German Academy of Sciences between 1956 and 1958. 

Lagrange, Comte Joseph Louis (1736-1813) An Italian-born French mathematician and astronomer noted for his work in mechanics, harmonics, and in the calculus of variations. He also established the theory of differential equations. He succeeded Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler (1707-83) as the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, during which time he published his work in MicaniqueAnalytique(n88), that covered every area of pure mathematics. 

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