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3 - Hertha Sponer, Maven of Quantum Spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2025

Patrick Charbonneau
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Margriet van der Heijden
Affiliation:
Eindhoven University of Technology
Daniela Monaldi
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
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Summary

Hertha Sponer’s (1894-1968) early years in physics were spent at the center of the quantum revolution. Training as an experimentalist under Debye, then heading the spectroscopy labs in Göttingen uniquely situated her to contribute to the development of quantum theory and the emergence of quantum chemistry, by novel interpretations of hitherto unexplained spectrographic data using quantum mechanics, and suggesting new applications of the theory to atoms and diatomic molecules. Sponer’s name has nevertheless been largely written out of scientific accounts of these years. When mentioned in the context of quantum theory, it is usually as Franck’s “assistant” (incorrect) and second wife – descriptions that obscure her status as a world-renowned scientist who’d contributed importantly to physics and chemistry over a long and illustrious career. Extant accounts of Sponer’s life and work almost exclusively concern her postwar years as a professor at Duke. But by then quantum theory was well established, and her research had pivoted in other directions. This chapter aims to introduce Sponer into the history of early quantum theory, with appropriate attention to her achievements.

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Women in the History of Quantum Physics
Beyond <i>Knabenphysik</i>
, pp. 82 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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