Hans Eduard Suess (December 16, 1909 – September 20, 1993)
[1] was an
Austrian born
American
physical chemist and
nuclear physicist . He was a grandson of the Austrian geologist
Eduard Suess .
Career
Suess earned his
Ph.D. in chemistry from the
University of Vienna in 1935 under the supervision of
Philipp Gross .
[2] During
World War II , he was part of a team of
German scientists studying
nuclear power and was advisor to the production of
heavy water in a Norwegian plant (see
Operation Gunnerside ).
After the war, he collaborated on the
shell model of the
atomic nucleus with future (1963)
Nobel Prize winner
Hans Jensen .
[3]
In 1950, Suess emigrated to the
United States . He did research in the field of
cosmochemistry , investigating the
abundance of certain elements in meteorites with
Harold Urey (
Nobel Prize in Chemistry , 1934) at the
University of Chicago . In 1955, Suess was recruited for the faculty of
Scripps Institution of Oceanography , and in 1958 he became one of the four founding faculty members of the
University of California, San Diego . He remained at UCSD as professor until 1977 and as emeritus professor thereafter.
[3] He established a laboratory at UCSD for
carbon-14 determinations, where he trained students including
Ellen R.M. Druffel ,
[4] now the Fred Kavli Professor of Earth System Science at
University of California, Irvine .
[5]
Suess's most recent research was focused on the distribution of
carbon-14 and
tritium in the oceans and atmosphere. On basis of
radiocarbon analyses of annual growth-rings of trees he contributed to
the calibration of the
radiocarbon dating scale, and
the study of the magnitude of the dilution of atmospheric radiocarbon by carbon dioxide from fossil fuels burned since the industrial revolution. This dilution is known as the
Suess effect (see articles about the anthropogenic
greenhouse effect ).
The mineral
suessite , a Fe, Ni-silicide in
Enstatit-Chondrites , is named after him.
[6]
Death
On September 20, 1993, Suess died in a La Jolla retirement home.
[7]
Name confusion
Suess was frequently confused—by the
US Postal Service among others—with a contemporary, the famed children's writer
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), when both men resided in
La Jolla, California . The two names have been posthumously linked as well: both men's personal papers are housed in the
Geisel Library at the
University of California, San Diego .
[8]
Notes
^
"Obituary Notes of Astronomers" .
^
"Kurzbiographie und Publikationen von Hans e. Suess (1909-1993)" .
^
a
b
"Register of Han Suess Papers 1875-1989" . Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego. Archived from
the original on July 2, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2011 .
^ Druffel, E. M.Radiocarbon in annual coral rings of the pacific and atlantic oceans Available from GeoRef. (50373092; 1981-013648).
^
"UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System - Ellen R.M. Druffel" .
^ Cabri, Louis J.; et al. (1981). "New Mineral Names ". American Meneralogist 66:1099-1103. p. 1101.
^
Hans E. Suess, professor emeritus of chemistry, died
^
"Finding Aid redirect" . Archived from
the original on July 2, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2011 .
References
Suess, Hans ; Urey, Harold (1956). "Abundances of the Elements". Reviews of Modern Physics . 28 (1): 53–74.
Bibcode :
1956RvMP...28...53S .
doi :
10.1103/RevModPhys.28.53 .
A Biographical Memoir, from the National Academy Press
A Biographical Memoir, from the National Academy Press
Genesis Mission page
Suess-effect
Murdin, Paul (2001). "Suess, Hans Eduard (1909?)". The Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics .
doi :
10.1888/0333750888/4039 .
ISBN
0-333-75088-8 .
Arnold, J. R.; Marti, K.; Wanke, H. (1994). "Hans Suess". Meteoritics . 29 : 289.
Bibcode :
1994Metic..29..289A .
doi :
10.1111/j.1945-5100.1994.tb00683.x .
Hans Suess . 2006.
doi :
10.17226/11522 .
ISBN
978-0-309-09579-2 .
Robert Jungk in Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1958), quotes Suess about the production of heavy water by the
Vemork plant . From page 110: "... Jomar Brun, a former technical manager of the [...] heavy water works at Rjukan in Norway [...] stated that he had been told by Hans Suess, the German atomic expert employed there, that production [...] could not attain the dimensions important for war production in much less than five years." Jomar Brun fled to Sweden after the occupation by German troops in 1940. Brun's letters (1950–1987), archived in
Hans Suess Papers :Series 2, Correspondence:b4/f29 , contain a discussion of secret war operations and Brun's role in the production of heavy water.
Hitler's Sunken Secret, a NOVA production airing in November 2005 undertakes a forensics approach to evaluate the heavy water threat.
Brun, Jomar. Brennpunkt Vemork 1940-1945 .
ISBN
82-00-06864-1 , 119 pages (1985), Universitetsforlaget.
Arnold, J. R.; Marti, K.; Wanke, H. (1994). "Memorial for Hans E. Suess". Meteoritics . 29 : 289.
Bibcode :
1994Metic..29..289A .
doi :
10.1111/j.1945-5100.1994.tb00683.x .
International National Academics People Other