Background
George Charles de Hevesy was born on August 1, 1885 in Budapest, Hungary. He was a son of Louis and Baronesse Eugenie (Schosberger) de Hevesy.
George Charles de Hevesy was born on August 1, 1885 in Budapest, Hungary. He was a son of Louis and Baronesse Eugenie (Schosberger) de Hevesy.
He was educated at Budapest and Freiburg universities obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1908.
Beginning his research at Zurich University as assistant professor (1909-1911), he worked with Fritz Haber at Karlsruhe University and in 1911 was granted a fellowship at Manchester University in the Rutherford Institute, where he worked on isotopes until 1913.
Returning to Budapest in 1913, he served in the army during World War I, and until 1920. worked on the perfection of metallurgical, chemical, and biological application of his methods. In the academic year 1918-1919, he was professor of physical chemistry at Budapest University, but was dismissed from his post by the Horthy regime because he was a Jew.
He emigrated to Denmark where he continued his researches at the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Hevesy moved to Copenhagen and after the occupation in 1943 fled to Stockholm, where he became a professor of organic chemistry. While in Copenhagen, he elaborated the extremely important method of neutron activation analysis, which is still the most sensitive technique for testing high-purity materials and is indispensable in engineering, where increasingly pure substances are required.
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On September 24, 1924 he married Pia Riis. They had four children: Jenny, George Louis, Ingrid, Pia.