Hertz, Gustav

Hertz, Gustav go͝os´täf hĕrts [key], 1887–1975, German physicist. He is noted for his work on the atom, and he shared with James Franck the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics for research (1914) on the effects of the impact of electrons on atoms. In 1928 he became professor at the Technical Institute, Berlin, but resigned in 1934 in protest against Nazi policies and went to work for Siemens. He worked on atomic bomb research for the USSR from 1945 to 1954, when he returned to Germany to teach at Karl Marx Univ. in Leipzig.

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