The Bruce Medalists: Ludwig Biermann

<header1><a href="../Intro.html" target="_parent" style="color: #8c23c0;">The Bruce Medalists</a></header1> <p> </p> <table> <tr> <td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="biermann.jpg"><img src="biermannSml.jpg" alt="" height="120" width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td valign="middle"><small>Photo courtesy Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, courtesy Prof. R. Kippenhahn</small></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" align="center"><header2>Ludwig Franz Benedikt Biermann</header2></td> </tr> <tr> <td><b>13 March 1907</b></td> <td align="center"><b>1967 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b>12 January 1986</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Ludwig Biermann studied at the <b><a href="http://www.uni-hannover.de/en/universitaet/geschichte/index.php">Technische Hochschule in Hanover</a></b>, and the Universities of <b><a href="http://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/about_lmu/history/index.html">Munich</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.uni-freiburg.de/universitaet-en/portrait/geschichte/geschichte">Freiburg</a></b> before earning his Ph.D. at <b><a href="http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/index.en.html">Göttingen</a></b> in 1932. He worked at Edinburgh, <b><a href="http://www.uni-jena.de/History-lang-en.html">Jena</a></b>, <b><a href="http://www.hu-berlin.de/ueberblick-en/history/huben_html">Berlin</a></b>, and <b><a href="http://www.uni-hamburg.de/PSV/PR/Presse/geschich.html">Hamburg</a></b> before becoming founding director of the <a href="http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/index-en.html"><b>astrophysics section</b></a> of the <a href="http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/index-en.html"><b>Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik</b></a>, first at Göttingen and after 1958 in Munich. (It is now the <b><a href="http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/index-en.html">Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics</a></b>.) Biermann made important contributions to the theory of convection in stellar interiors before the source of stellar energy was known. He modeled the solar chromosphere and corona. He and <b><a href="../Cowling/index.html">Thomas G. Cowling</a></b> did similar work on stellar interiors and stability, and before and after World War II they collaborated by letter. Biermann computed atomic physics parameters needed for stellar models. His study of comet tails led to successful predictions of the <b><a href="http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wsolwind.html">solar wind</a></b> and of the hydrogen halos around comets. In his later years he specialized in plasma physics and magnetic fields in the solar system and in the Galaxy.</p> <p><header3>Presentation of Bruce medal</header3><br> Abt, Helmut A. <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1967PASP...79..197A"><i>PASP</i> <b>79</b>,197-201 (1967).</a> </p> <p><header3>Other awards</header3><br> Astronomische Gesellschaft, <a href="http://www.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/en/auszeichnungen/schwarzschild">Karl Schwarzschild Medal</a>, 1980, presented by Th. Schmidt-Kaler, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1981MitAG..51...33S"><i>Mitt. Astron. Ges.</i> <b>51</b>, 33-34 (1980)</a> [in German].<br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/awards-and-grants/awards">Gold Medal</a>, 1974, presented by D.E. Blackwell, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1974QJRAS..15..219B"><i>QJRAS</i> <b>15</b>, 219-23 (1974)</a>.<br> <a href="http://cosparhq.cnes.fr/About/about.htm">COSPAR</a>, <a href="https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/awards/space-science-medal">Space Science Award</a>, 1986. <p><header3>Biographical materials</header3><br> Biermann, Ludwig, <i>Ludwig Biermann, 1907-1986</i> (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Munich, 1988). [autobiography, in German]<br> </p> <p><header3>Obituaries</header3><br> Trefftz, E., “Nachruf auf Professor Ludwig Biermann,” <i>J. Geophys.</i> <b>60</b>, 3, 204-06 (1986).<br> Börner, G., <i>Phys. Bl.</i> 42. Jahrg., Heft 10, p. 358-359 (1986).<br> Börner, G., “Ludwig Biermann (1907-1986),” in Past, Present and Future Trends in Geophysical Research, Wilfried Schröder, ed., Interdivisional Commission on History of IAGA, 1988 (Newsletters of the Interdivisional Commission on History of IAGA, no. 3)<br> <a href="../Cowling/index.html">Cowling, T.G.</a> & L. Mestel, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986QJRAS..27..698C"><i>QJRAS</i> <b>27</b>, 698-700 (1986)</a>.<br> Kippenhahn, Rudolf, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986MitAG..66...10."><i>Mitt. Astron. Ges.</i>, <b>66</b>, 10-11 (1986)</a>.<br> Lüst, R., <i>Sterne & Weltraum</i> <b>25</b>, 250-251 (1986).<br> Priester, W., <i>Sterne & Weltraum</i> <b>25</b>, 126-27 (1986).<br> <a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_bi.html">More obituaries</a> </p> <p><header3>Portraits</header3><br> <a href="http://photos.aip.org/">AIP Center for History of Physics</a><br> <a href="http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/physics/2ndgenconf/sets/Con43.html">International Atomic Energy Association</a><br> </p> <p><header3>Named after him</header3><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html">Minor Planet #73640 Biermann</a><br> Astronomische Gesellschaft, <a href="http://www.cirs-tm.org/prix/awards.php?id=914">Ludwig Biermann Award</a> </p> <p><header3><a href="BiermannRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></header3></p> <p> <center> <b><a href="../index.html" target="_parent">The Bruce Medalists</a></b> </center> </p> <table> <tr> <td valign="TOP"><font size="-1">Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a></td><br> <td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><font size="-1"><i> <a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a> </i><br> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">2013-09-04</a></td> </tr> </table>