Johannes Stark


Stark, Johannes

 

Born Apr. 15, 1874, in Schickenhof; died June 21, 1957, in Traunstein. German physicist (Federal Republic of Germany).

Stark became a professor at the Technische Hochschule in Hanover in 1906, at the Technische Hochschule in Aachen in 1909, at the University of Greifswald in 1917, and at the University of Würzburg in 1920. From 1933 to 1939, he was the president of the Reich Physical-Technical Institute in Berlin. Between 1934 and 1936, he was the president of the German Scientific Society.

In 1919, Stark received a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and for the discovery of the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields (seeSTARK EFFECT). Stark also carried out research in gas discharges. He discovered the deflection of light as it passes through nonuniform electric fields.

During Hitler’s regime, Stark was an active Nazi.