In 1906, Lenz graduated from the Klinger-Oberralschule, a non-classical secondary school in Frankfurt, and went to study mathematics and physics at the
University of Göttingen. From 1908 to 1911, Lenz studied under
Arnold Sommerfeld, at the
University of Munich, and he was granted his doctorate[3] on March 2, 1911. Upon graduation, he stayed on at the University, became Sommerfeld’s assistant on April 1, 1911, and he completed his
Habilitation on February 20, 1914, becoming a
Privatdozent on April 4, 1914. During
World War I, he served as a radio operator in
France and was awarded the
Iron Cross Second Class in 1916. From September 30, 1920, he was again an assistant to Sommerfeld at the University of Munich’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, and he was appointed to the title and rank of extraordinarius professor at the University, on November 11, 1920. On December 1, 1920 he became an extraordinarius professor at the
University of Rostock. From 1921, until his retirement in 1956, he was at the
University of Hamburg, as Ordinarius Professor of Theoretical Physics and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics.[4][5][6][7]
The formation of the new chair and institute for theoretical physics at Hamburg was a result of advances being made in Germany on
atomic physics and
quantum mechanics and the personal intervention of Sommerfeld, who helped many of his students get such professorships.[8]
^Lenz – Mathematics Genealogy Project. 1911 Dissertation title: Über das elektromagnetische Wechselfeld der Spulen und deren Wechselstrom-Widerstand, Selbstinduktion und Kapazität.
^Other examples besides Lenz at Hamburg, include
Peter Debye at the
University of Zurich,
Adolf Kratzer at the
University of Münster, and
Erwin Fues at the
University of Stuttgart, where Sommerfeld’s former student
Paul Peter Ewald was already in place. When they were called to other facilities, these personnel effectively became extensions of Sommerfeld’s Institute of Theoretical Physics. See Mehra, Volume 1, Part 1, 1982, p. 335 and Mehra, Volume 5, Part 1, 2001, p. 249.
^Pauli began as Hilfsassistent to Lenz at Hamburg on April 1, 1922. He also completed his
Habilitation there. Both Lenz and
Otto Stern knew of Pauli’s abilities. The mathematician
Erich Hecke was dean of the faculty at the time. Hecke waived the normal trail lecture and the colloquium for Habilitation, in recognition of his abilities. The "venia legendi" was conferred on Pauli and he gave his inaugural lecture on February 23, 1924. See Mehra, Volume 1, Part 2, pp. 487 and 672.
^In 1923, Jordan went to the
University of Göttingen and was instrumental in helping
Max Born in founding the matrix mechanics formulation of
quantum mechanics in 1925, from a paper by
Werner Heisenberg given to Born, in July of that year, for review and publication.
^Unsöld was a former doctoral student of Sommerfeld, who got his degree in 1927. See
Unsöld – Mathematics Genealogy Project.
^Amari, Shun-Ichi (1972). "Learning patterns and pattern sequences by self-organizing nets of threshold elements". IEEE Transactions. C (21): 1197–1206.
Mehra, Jagdish, and
Helmut RechenbergThe Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 1 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900 – 1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties. (Springer, 2001)
ISBN0-387-95174-1
Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 2 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900 – 1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties. (Springer, 2001)
ISBN0-387-95175-X
Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 5 Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 1 Schrödinger in Vienna and Zurich 1887–1925. (Springer, 2001)
ISBN0-387-95179-2