Philipp Lenard | |
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![]() Lenard in 1905 | |
Born | |
Died | 20 May 1947 | (aged 84)
Citizenship | Hungary[1] Germany |
Alma mater | University of Heidelberg |
Known for | |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | |
Doctoral advisor | Robert Bunsen Georg Hermann Quincke |
Doctoral students | Edward Andrade Walther Kossel |
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (German pronunciation: [ˈfɪlɪp ˈleːnaʁt] ; Hungarian: Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal; 7 June 1862 – 20 May 1947) was a Hungarian-German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties. One of his most important contributions was the experimental realization of the photoelectric effect. He discovered that the energy (speed) of the electrons ejected from a cathode depends only on the frequency, and not the intensity, of the incident light.
Lenard was a nationalist and anti-Semite; as an active proponent of the Nazi ideology, he supported Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and was an important role model for the "Deutsche Physik" movement during the Nazi period. Notably, he labeled Albert Einstein's contributions to science as “Jewish physics”.