Erich Hückel
Erich Armand Arthur Joseph Hückel ForMemRS (August 9, 1896, Berlin – February 16, 1980, Marburg) was a German physicist and physical chemist. He is known for two major contributions:
- The Debye–Hückel theory of electrolytic solutions
- The Hückel method of approximate molecular orbital (MO) calculations on π electron systems.
Erich Hückel | |
|---|---|
Erich Hückel in 1938 | |
| Born | August 9, 1896 |
| Died | February 16, 1980 (aged 83) |
| Known for | Debye–Hückel equation Debye–Hückel theory Hückel method Hückel rule |
Hückel was born in the Charlottenburg suburb of Berlin. He studied physics and mathematics from 1914 to 1921 at the University of Göttingen.
On receiving his doctorate, he became an assistant at Göttingen, but soon became an assistant to Peter Debye at Zürich. It was there that he and Debye developed their theory (the Debye–Hückel theory, in 1923) of electrolytic solutions, elucidating the behavior of strong electrolytes by considering interionic forces, in order to account for their electrical conductivity and their thermodynamic activity coefficients.
After spending 1928 and 1929 in England and Denmark, working briefly with Niels Bohr, Hückel joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart. In 1935, he moved to Phillips University in Marburg, where he finally was named Full Professor a year before his retirement 1961. He was a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.