Name Werner Braunbeck | Books The Pursuit of the Atom | |
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Werner Braunbeck (German: Werner Braunbek; 8 January 1901 – 9 February 1977) was a German physicist.
He was born in Bautzen, the son of the Government Commissioner of City Planning Otto August Braunbek (1869–1929). Werner attended the University of Stuttgart, the University of Munich and the University of Berlin. In 1925 he received a doctorate in engineering and completed his habilitation in theoretical physics the following year at the University of Stuttgart, where he continued as a lecturer.
In 1932 Braunbeck became Associate Professor at the University of Stuttgart, before replacing Alfred Landé in 1936 as Professor of theoretical physics at the University of Tübingen, and succeeding to the role of Professor in 1959. In 1961/62 he served as Dean of Mathematical and Natural Sciences of the University of Tübingen.
In 1934 Braunbeck developed the Braunbek coil, a modified Helmholtz coil. In 1939, he disproved Earnshaw's theorem by showing that there are magnetic fields in which small diamagnetic bodies can float in a stable position. He pioneered study into the diffraction of waves, particularly at short wavelengths. Braunbek also authored a number of popular science physics books.
He died in Tübingen, aged 76.