James Franck | Biography

James Franck (1882-1964) studied the effects of an electron upon an atom. Along with Gustave Hertz, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1925.

James Franck was a physicist whose experimental work with atoms and electrons proved Niels Bohr's theory that atoms are quantized--that they transmit and absorb energy in discrete quantities or packages. Along with collaborator Gustav Hertz, he was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in physics. Franck was also known for his outspoken opposition to the use of the atomic bomb, which he helped develop during World War II.

Franck was born in Hamburg, Germany, on August 26, 1882, to Jacob Franck, a German Jewish banker, and Rebecka Nachum Drucker. Although Jacob Franck was deeply religious--he observed Jewish holidays with fasting and chanting--his spiritual devotion did not, on the whole, pass on to James, who would later declare science and nature as his true love and...
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