Max Abraham

Max Abraham

Born: 26 March 1875 in Danzig (now Gdansk), Germany
Died: 16 Nov 1922 in Munich, Germany

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Max Abraham studied under Planck, writing his doctoral dissertation in 1897. Then he lectured at Göttingen until 1909 when he accepted a post in Illinois. Disliking the USA he returned within a few months to Göttingen, going next to Milan. Forced to return to Germany at the start of World War I he worked on the theory of radio transmission. Unable to return to Milan after the War he worked at Stuttgart until 1921 when he accepted a chair in Aachen. He took ill on the way to Aachen and never recovered.

His work is almost all related to Maxwell's theory and he wrote a text which was the standard work on electrodynamics in Germany for a long time. His theory of the electron was developed in 1902 but in 1904 Lorentz and Einstein produced a different theory. Abraham's was at first supported by experiment, but later work was to favour of the Lorentz, Einstein theory. Abraham was opposed to relativity all his life.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. M Born and M von Laue, Max Abraham, Physikalische Z. 24 (1923), 49-53.
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