Victor Franz Hess was born on
the 24th of June, 1883, in Waldstein Castle, near Peggau in
Steiermark, Austria. His father, Vinzens Hess, was a forester in
Prince Öttingen-Wallerstein's service and his mother was
Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt.
He received his entire education in Graz: Gymnasium (1893-1901),
and afterwards Graz University (1901-1905), where he took his
doctor's degree in 1910.
He worked, for a short time, at the Physical Institute in Vienna,
where Professor von Schweidler initiated him in recent
discoveries in the field of radioactivity. During 1910-1920 he
was Assistant under Stephan Meyer at the Institute of Radium
Research of the Viennese Academy of Sciences. In 1919 he received
the Lieben Prize for his discovery of the"ultra-radiation"
(cosmic radiation), and the year after became Extraordinary
Professor of Experimental Physics at the Graz University.
From 1921 to 1923, Hess was granted leave of absence, and worked
in the United States, where he took a post as Director of the
Research Laboratory (created by him) of the U.S. Radium
Corporation, at Orange (New Jersey), and as Consulting Physicist
for the U.S. Department of the Interior (Bureau of Mines),
Washington D.C.
In 1923 he returned to Graz University and in 1925 he was
appointed Ordinary Professor of Experimental Physics. In 1931
came his appointment as Professor at Innsbruck University and
Director of the newly established Institute of Radiology. He
founded the station at the Hafelekar mountain (2,300 m) near
Innsbruck for observing and studying cosmic rays.
As well as the Nobel Prize for 1936, which he shared with C.D.
Anderson, Hess has been awarded the Abbe Memorial Prize and the
Abbe Medal of the Carl Zeiss Institute in Jena (1932); he was
also Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
Hess's work which gained him the Nobel Prize, was carried out
during the years 1911-1913, and published in the Proceedings of
the Viennese Academy of Sciences. In addition he has published
some sixty papers and several books, of which the most important
were: "Die Wärmeproduktion des Radiums" (The heat production
of radium), 1912; "Konvektionserscheinungen in ionisierten
Gasen-Ionenwind" (Convection phenomena in ionized gas-ionwinds),
1919-1920; "The measurement of gamma rays", 1916 (with R.W.
Lawson); "The counting of alpha particles emitted from radium",
1918 (also with R. W. Lawson); Elektrische Leitfähigkeit
der Atmosphäre und ihre Ursachen (book), 1926 (in
English: The Electrical Conductivity of the Atmosphere and Its
Causes, 1928); Ionenbilanz der Atmosphäre (The
ionization balance of the atmosphere - book), 1933;
Luftelektrizität (Electricity of the air - book, with
H. Benndorf), 1928; "Lebensdauer der Ionen in der
Atmosphäre" (Average life of the ions in the atmosphere),
1927-1928; "Schwankungen der Intensität in den kosmischen
Strahlen" (Intensity fluctuations in cosmic rays),
1929-1936.
Hess has been American citizen since 1944, and is living in New
York.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Victor F. Hess died on December 17, 1964.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1936
Victor F. Hess
