Friedrich Dolezalek

1873-02-05 - 1920-12-10


dolezalek.jpg (104 KB)Friedrich Dolezalek was born 1873-02-05 in Mar[a]maros-Sziget, Austria-Hungary (Transylvania; now Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania).

He studied chemical and electrical engineering at the Technische Hochschule Hannover (1893 - 1895) and was a student and coworker of Walther Nernst in Göttingen (1895 - 1900). He developed a very sensitive (5 microvolt) quadrant electrometer (1896). PhD thesis (1898) on the thermodynamics of homogeneous mixtures. Subsequently he worked on the theory of the lead accumulator.

1900-11-01 Dolezalek started working with Friedrich Kohlrausch at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt for about eight months.

1901-07-05 Dolezalek started working at Siemens & Halske on long distance telephone cables and on other electrical engineering challenges related to alternating currents.

After his habilitation at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg (Berlin) Dolezalek was appointed professor at the Technische Hochschule Danzig (Easter 1904).

Already in October 1904 Dolezalek was appointed extraordinary professor and director of the Göttingen physicochemical institute as successor of Walther Nernst (1905 -1907).

In April 1907 Dolezalek was appointed professor of physics at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg (Berlin) as successor of Heinrich Rubens. He worked on the theory of binary mixtures and concentrated solutions. In October 1912 he changed to the chemistry department and was appointed director of the electrochemical institute as successor of Franz Fischer (who was appointed director of the newly founded Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mühlheim).

Dolezalek initiated a new institute for physical chemistry and electrochemistry. Despite the war (1914 - 1918) and with enormous support from industry the institute became operational for the winter semester 1919. However, Dolezalek could enjoy his new institute only for about one year.

Friedrich Dolezalek died 1920-12-10 in Charlottenburg (Berlin) at age 47.

References

Alfred Schulze. Friedrich Dolezalek. Z. Elektrochem. 27 (1921) 89 - 92 (obituary, with bibliography).

H. G. Möller. Friedrich Dolezalek. Phys. Z. 22 (1921) 161 - 163 (obituary)

K. A. Hofmann. Friedrich Dolezalek. Chem. Ber. 54 (1921) A1, A21 - A25 (obituary, with bibliography)


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Revised 2004-08-04