Isolde Hausser (née Ganswindt; 7 December 1889 – 5 October 1951) was a German physicist. She became the head of a department of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research (then Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research) in Heidelberg in 1935.

Life and work

Ganswindt was the daughter of Hermann Ganswindt and his first wife Anna Minna (née Fritsche, 1866-1911). After graduating from the Chamisso School in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1909, she began studying physics, mathematics, and philosophy at the University of Berlin. In 1914, she received a doctorate degree in physics with a dissertation titled Erzeugung und Empfang kurzer elektrischer Wellen ("Production and reception of short electrical waves").^[1]

From 1914 to 1929 she worked as a staff member in the research department of Telefunken in Berlin under the direction of Hans Rukop (1883-1958), with whom she also published several research papers. She married the physicist Karl Wilhelm Hausser (1887-1933) in 1918, with whom she had a son, Karl Hermann Hausser (1919-2001). In 1929 she joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, where she became head of an independent department in 1935. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research later became the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. She worked there until her death in 1951.^[1]

Isolde Hausser made contributions to vacuum tube research, the physics underlying radiation therapy, radar technology, and research on radiation in medicine.

The Isolde-Hausser-Straße ("Isolde Hausser street") in Königs Wusterhausen is named after her.

References

• Fuchs, Margot (1993). "Isolde Hausser (1889–1951). Physikerin in Industrie und Forschung" [Isolde Hausser (1889-1951): Physicist in industry and research]. In Annemarie Haase, Harro Kieser (ed.). Können, Mut und Phantasie. Portraits schöpferischer Frauen aus Mitteldeutschland [Skill, courage, and imagination: Portraits of creative women from Central Germany] (in German). Weimar: Böhlau. pp. 149–164. ISBN 3-412-02993-9.
• Fuchs, Margot (1994). "Isolde Hausser (7.12.1889–5.10.1951). Technische Physikerin und Wissenschaftlerin am Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische Forschung, Heidelberg" [Isolde Hausser (December 7, 1889 - October 5, 1951): Technical physicist and researcher at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-/Max-Planck-Institut for Medical Research, Heidelberg]. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (in German). 17 (3): 201–215. doi:10.1002/bewi.19940170309. PMID 11640803. S2CID 143767774.
• Hausser, Karl; Frey, Rudolf (1981). "50 Jahre Hausser-Vahle-Kurve" [50 years of the Hausser-Vahle curve]. Acta Medicotechnica (in German). 29 (1): 33–34.
• Richard Kuhn (1969), "Hausser, Isolde", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 8, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 127–128; (full text online)
• Marilyn Ogilvie; Joy Harvey, eds. (2000). "The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: A-K". The biographical dictionary of women in science. Pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century (A-K). Vol. 1. pp. 566–568. ISBN 0-415-92039-6.
• Schmidt-Rohr, Ulrich (1996). Erinnerungen an die Vorgeschichte und die Gründerjahre des Max-Planck-Instituts für Kernphysik [Memories of the history and the founding years of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics] (in German). Heidelberg.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Vogt, Annette (1997). "Vom Hintereingang zum Hauptportal – Wissenschaftlerinnen in der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft" [From the back entrance to the main portal - women scientists at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society]. Dahlemer Archivgespräche [Dahlem archive conversations] (in German). Vol. 2. pp. 134–139.
• Vogt, Annette (2007). Vom Hintereingang zum Hauptportal? Lise Meitner und ihre Kolleginnen an der Berliner Universität und in der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft' [From the back entrance to the main portal? Lise Meitner and her women colleagues at the University of Berlin in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society] (in German). Stuttgart: Steiner. ISBN 978-3-515-08881-7.
• Vogt, Annette (2008). Wissenschaftlerinnen in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten. A – Z [Women scientists in Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes: A - Z] (in German) (2 ed.). Berlin: Archives of the history of the Max Planck Society. pp. 70–72. ISBN 978-3-927579-12-5.
• Siegfrid von Weiher, ed. (1983). Männer der Funktechnik. Eine Sammlung von 70 Lebenswerken deutscher Pioniere der Funktechnik (drahtlose Telegrafie, Radar, Rundfunk und Fernsehen) [Men of radio technology: A collection of the life and works of 70 German pioneers of radio technology (wireless telegraphy, radar, radio, and television)]. Berlin: VDE-Verlag. ISBN 3-8007-1314-4.