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Victor Francis Hess
Victor Francis Hess
Born	June 24, 1883(1883-06-24) Waldstein Castle, near Peggau, Austria
Died	December 17, 1964 (aged 81) Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Residence	Austria  United States
Nationality	Austrian American
Field	Physics
Institutions	University of Graz Austrian Academy of Sciences University of Innsbruck Fordham University
Alma mater	University of Graz
Known for	discovery of cosmic rays
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize in Physics 1936

Victor Francis Hess (June 24, 1883 – December 17, 1964) was an Austrian-American physicist. For his discovery of cosmic rays he won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Carl David Anderson.

Hess was born to Vinzens Hess and Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt, in Waldstein Castle, near Peggau in Steiermark, Austria. His father was a royal forester in Prince Öttingen-Wallerstein's service. He attended secondary school at Graz Gymnasium from 1893 to 1901.^[1][2]

From 1901 to 1905 Hess was an undergraduate student at the University of Graz, and continued postgraduate studies in physics until he received his PhD there in 1910. He worked as Assistant under Stephan Meyer at the Institute of Radium Research, Viennese Academy of Sciences, from 1910 to 1920. Hess took at leave of absence in 1921 and travelled to the United States, working at the US Radium Corporation, in New Jersey, and as Consulting Physicist for the US Bureau of Mines, in Washington DC. In 1923, he returned to the University of Graz, and was appointed the Ordinary Professor of Experimental Physics in 1925. The University of Innsbruck appointed him Professor, and Director Institute of Radiology, in 1931.^[1]

Hess relocated to the United States with his Jewish wife in 1938, in order to escape Nazi persecution. The same year Fordham University appointed him Professor of Physics, and he later became a naturalized United States citizen in 1944. Retiring from Fordham in 1956, Hess died on 17 December 1964, in Mount Vernon, New York, United States.^[3]

Between 1911 and 1913, Hess undertook the work that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936. For many years, scientists had been puzzled by the levels of ionizing radiation measured in the atmosphere. The assumption at the time was that the radiation would decrease as the distance from the earth, the source of the radiation, increased. The electroscopes previously used gave an approximate measurement of the radiation, but indicated that higher in the atmosphere the level of radiation may actually be more than that on the ground. Hess approached this mystery first by greatly increasing the precision of the measuring equipment, and then by personally taking the equipment aloft in a balloon. He systematically measured the radiation at altitudes up to 5.3 km during 1911-12. The daring flights were made both at day and during the night, at significant risk to himself.^[2]

The result of Hess's meticulous work was published in the Proceedings of the Viennese Academy of Sciences, and showed the level of radiation decreased up to an altitude of about 1 km, but above that the level increased considerably, with the radiation detected at 5 km about twice that at sea level. His conclusion was that there was radiation penetrating the atmosphere from outer space, and his discovery was confirmed by Robert Andrews Millikan in 1925, who gave the radiation the name "cosmic rays". Hess's discovery opened the door to many new discoveries in nuclear physics.^[2]

• over 60 technical papers
• several books, including (1928) The Electrical Conductivity of the Atmosphere and Its Causes (in English). Constable & Company. ASIN B00085VONE. 

• Lieben Prize 1919
• Abbe Memorial Prize
• Abbe Medal of the Carl Zeiss Institute in Jena (1932)
• Nobel Prize in Physics 1936 (shared with Carl David Anderson)

• Biography and Nobel lecture (nobelprize.org)