Lenard, Philipp Edward Anton Von
Lenard, Philipp Edward Anton Von
Born June 7, 1862, in Pressburg, now Bratislava; died May 20, 1947, in Messelhausen. German physicist.
Lenard studied at the universities of Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Heidelberg. He was a professor of physics in Breslau (1894), Aachen (1895), Heidelberg (1896, 1907–1931), and Kiel (1895). In 1909 he was appointed head of the Radiological Institute in Heidelberg. Lenard investigated the nature and properties of cathode rays (Nobel Prize, 1905). He also studied the properties of ultraviolet radiation, the photoelectric effect (he showed experimentally that the velocity of photoelectrons depends only on the frequency v of the light), the mechanism of phosphorescence, and the properties of metals. During the Hitlerite regime he proved to be an active Nazi.