!!!Hess, Viktor Franz

b. Schloss Waldstein (Styria), June 24, 1883, 
d. Mount Vernon near New York (USA), Dec. 17, 1964, physicist, Nobel 
Prize Laureate for Physics 1936. 1908-1920 lecturer at the University 
of Veterinary Medicine and research and teaching assistant at the 
Radium Research Institute in Vienna; there he started to study the 
absorption of radium gamma rays in the air. During balloon trips in 
1911/1912 detected the so-called cosmic or ultra rays, continued his 
research in Graz (1920/1921, 1923-1931, 1937/1938) and Innsbruck 
(1931-1937). 1921-1923 founded and headed a research laboratory in 
America, in 1931 built a research centre on Hafelekar mountain near 
Innsbruck to observe cosmic radiation. 1938 had to leave Austria; 
taught at the Fordham University in New York. Developed an instrument 
to measure gamma rays and studied the problems of radiation protection 
(radium burns on his hand). H. provided principles for all radiation 
and nuclear research which followed. 1936 awarded the Nobel Prize for 
physics for the discovery of and research into cosmic radiation.

!Publications
Die elektrische Leitfaehigkeit der Atmosphaere und ihre 
Ursachen, 1926; Die Weltraumstrahlung und ihre biologischen Wirkungen, 
1940; Persoenliche Erinnerungen, 1950.

!Literature
Almanach der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 
116, 1966; NDB.



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