Frank James (Franck James)

(1882-1964)
Born August 26, 1882 in Hamburg. Educated at Heidelberg and Berlin Universities. He worked at the University of Berlin, headed the department of Physics at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Kaiser Wilhelm (Berlin), Professor and Director of the Physics Institute of the University of Gottingen. In 1933-1935 he worked at the University of Copenhagen, in 1935-1938 - a physics professor at Johns Hopkins University, since 1939 - professor at the University of Chicago. During the Second World War he was involved in research in the framework of the project Manhattanskogo.
Works of Frank were the areas of atomic physics, molecular spectroscopy, photosynthesis. With G. Hertz conducted experiments on the excitation of mercury atoms in collisions with electrons, found that the gas emission (luminescence) is observed only in the case when the electron has a certain minimum energy. By defining this energy, showed that it is the product of Planck's constant on the frequency of the emitted light, which served as further proof of the discreteness of the energy levels of atoms and confirmed the theory of atomic structure Bora. Investigated the photochemical processes occurring in the molecule of chlorophyll. The outcome of recent work has become fundamental work of photosynthesis in plants (Photosynthesis in Plants, 1949). For his scientific achievements, Frank has been awarded medals of Max Planck and B. Rumford, awarded the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1955. Frank died in GцІttingen 21 May 1964.