Physics

Biography

Biography: Å tefan Zajac

Abstract

Physics has been cultivated in Prague since at least 1348, when a University was founded here by Emperor Charles IV. At the beginning the main emphasis was on astronomy. First astronomers KÅ™išÅ¥an from Prachatice ( 1360 – 1439) and Jan OndÅ™ejov Šindel  (1375 – 1456) in co-operation with clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň around 1410 had designed and installed the  astronomical clock placed on the Old Town Hall tower in Prague. Astronomer and chief  physician Tadeuš Hájek of Hájek (1525-1600) had inluenced Emperor Rudolph II to invite Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601)  and Johannes Kepler ( 1571 – 1630) to come to Prague where the first two of his laws of planetary motion have been formulated. Jan Marcus Marci of Kronland (1595 – 1667), a physicist, physician and rector of Prague University  made original research in mechanics (impact of bodies) and optics ( diffraction of light, explanation of rainbow). In the middle of the 18th  century at the Clementinum, the Jesuit College, physicist Josef Stepling (1716 -1778) and his successors at the Prague Faculty of Philosophy promoted Newtonian Physics . Christian Doppler (1803 – 1853) as professor at Prague Polytechnic  in 1842 published important phenomenon of the frequency shift due to the velocity of the source of waves relative to the observer. One of the most outstanding physicists and philosophers of the 19th century Ernst Mach (1838 – 1916) during his stay at Prague university in the period 1868 – 1883 practically educated all physics students of that time. One of his most successful  successors was ÄŒenÄ›k Strouhal (1850 – 1922), professor of experimental physics and first rector of Czech University of Prague separated from its German counterpart in 1882. His younger colleague Bohumil Kučera (1874 – 1921) had started pioneering research in radioactivity and had inspired professor Jaroslav Heyrovský (1890 – 1967) to develop polarography for which he in 1959 earned Nobel Prize for chemistry. The most prominent personality Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) was appointed professor of theoretical physics at the German University of Prague in the period 1911 – 1912 when he already prepared the formulation of general theory of relativity. In the period of First Czechoslovak Republic (1918 – 1938) have worked outstanding physicists -  František Záviška (1879 – 1945) in the theory of relativity and propagation of electromagnetic waves,  Václav Dolejšek (1895 – 1945)  discover of the N-series in the X-far spektra of U, Th, Bi) and Augustin Žáček (1886-1961)  discover of the principle of magnetron. During World War II, when Czech universities have been closed down, Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists, one of the oldest learned societies in Europe, found in 1862, have  fulfilled at least partial  role in  education of physicists. After World War II leading professors of physics have been  Viktor Trkal (1888 – 1956)  , Václav Petržílka ( 1905 – 1976), Václav Votruba ( 1909 – 1990) and ZdenÄ›k Matyáš (1914-1957).  Later have been recognized many specialists in nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, plasma physics and solid state physics working at Universities and at the Institutes of newly founded Academy of Sciences. After Soviet invasion to Czechoslovakia in 1968 many well known physicists have emigrated and have made successful scientific research abroad. In the final etape – Velvet Revolution in 1989, the division of Czechoslovakia into Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993 and the entrance of Czech Republic to European Union in 2004, our physicists have generated new trends in up-to-date scientific research, education and application in physics together with extension of international cooperation.