Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest | |
|---|---|
Ehrenfest, c. 1910s | |
| Born | 18 January 1880 |
| Died | 25 September 1933 (aged 53) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Cause of death | Murder-suicide |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for |
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| Title | Professor of Theoretical Physics |
| Term | 1912–1933 |
| Predecessor | Hendrik Lorentz |
| Successor | Hans Kramers |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, including Tatyana |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Statistical physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Die Bewegung starrer Körper in Flüssigkeiten und die Mechanik von Hertz (The motion of rigid bodies in fluids and the mechanics of Hertz) (1904) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ludwig Boltzmann |
| Doctoral students |
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| Other notable students | |
Paul Ehrenfest (German: [ˈpaʊl ˈeːʁənˌfɛst]; 18 January 1880 – 25 September 1933) was an Austrian theoretical physicist who made major contributions to statistical mechanics and its relation to quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem. He befriended Albert Einstein on a visit to Prague in 1912 and became a professor in Leiden, where he frequently hosted Einstein. Suffering from depression, in 1933 Ehrenfest killed his disabled son, Wassik, and then himself.