| Gustav Mie | |
|---|---|
 Gustav Adolf Feodor Wilhelm Ludwig Mie |
|
| Born | September 29, 1869 Rostock, Germany |
| Died | February 13, 1957 Freiburg, Germany |
| Residence |  Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Field | Physicist |
| Institutions | University of Greifswald University of Halle-Wittenberg University of Freiburg |
| Known for | Mie scattering |
| Religious stance | protestant |
Gustav Adolf Feodor Wilhelm Ludwig Mie (September 29,1869 Rostock – February 13,1957 Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German physicist. From 1886 he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Rostock. Beside these subjects he heard lectures in chemistry, zoology, geology, mineralogy, astronomy as well as logic and metaphysics. In 1889 he continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg and attained a doctorate degree in the subject mathematics at the age of 22. In 1897 he got his Habilitation at the University of Göttingen in theoretical physics and in 1902 became extraordinary professor for theoretical physics at Greifswald University. In 1917 he became full professor for experimental physics at Halle University. In 1924 became Professor at the Freiburg University, where it worked up to his retirement in 1935. He died on 13 February 1957. During his Greifswald years he worked on the computation of scattering of an electromagnetic wave by a homogeneous dielectric sphere, which was published in 1908 under the title of “Contributions to the optics of turbid media, particularly of colloidal metal solutions” in Annalen der Physik. The term Mie scattering is still related to his name. Using Maxwell's electromagnetic theory applied to spherical Gold particles Gustav Mie povided a theoretical treatment of plasmon resonance absorption of Gold colloids. The sharp absorption bands depend on the particle size and explain the change in colour that occurs as the size of the colloid nanoparticles is increased from 20 to 1600nm. He wrote further important contributions to electromagnetism and also to relativity theory. In addition he was employed on measurements units and finally developed his Mie system of units in 1910 with the basic units Volt, Ampere, Coulomb and Second (VACS-system). In Freiburg during the Nazi dictatorship Mie was member of the university opposition of the so-called "Freiburger Kreise" (Freiburg circle) and he one was the participant of the original "Freiburger Konzils". (Freiburg council). A crater on Mars was named in his honor. and also a building of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg carries his name.
Publications
- Moleküle, Atome, Weltäther. Teubner-Verlag, 1904
- Die geistige Struktur der Physik. Gütersloh 1934.
- Die göttliche Ordnung in der Natur. Furche-Verlag, 1946
- Lehrbuch der Elektrizität und des Magnetismus. Enke-Verlag, 1948
- Die Grundlagen der Mechanik. Enke-Verlag, 1950
- Gustav Mie: Beiträge zur Optik trüber Medien, speziell kolloidaler Metallösungen. Annalen der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 25, 1908, No. 3, p 377-445.
References
- Niels Goldschmidt: Die Entstehung der Freiburger Kreise. Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen 4 (1997), 1-17.
- Wolfram Hergert: Gustav Mie und Albert Einstein, Diskussionen zur Entwicklung der Allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. scientia halensis 13 (2005) 3, 13-14.
- Eckhard John, Bernd Martin, Marc Mück, Hugo Ott (Hrsg.): Die Freiburger Universität in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Freiburg 1991.
- Gunter Kohl (Vorwort: David E. Rowe): Relativität in der Schwebe: Die Rolle von Gustav Mie. MPI für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Preprint 2002, Berlin 2002.
- Pedro Lilienfeld: Gustav Mie: the person. Applied Optics 30 (1991) 33, 4696-4698.
