| Hans Bethe  AKA Hans Albrecht Bethe
Born: 2-Jul-1906
Birthplace: Strassburg, Germany
Died: 6-Mar-2005
Location of death: Ithaca, NY
Cause of death: Natural Causes
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist
Party Affiliation: Democratic Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Atomic scientist Hans Bethe (pronounced beta) earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Munich in 1928, and in 1932 became an assistant professor at Tübingen University in lovely Tübingen, Germany. Bethe had been raised in a Christian household, but his mother had been born Jewish, so as Hitler rose to power, Bethe's career evaporated. After a few years in Britain, Bethe joined the faculty at Cornell University in New York. He became an American citizen in 1941.
His study of the carbon-nitrogen cycle in bright stars and the proton-proton reaction in fainter stars won him a Nobel Prize. Bethe was invited to work on the Manhattan Project, developing the atomic bomb, and he was skeptical about whether it could be built, but he felt he owed it to his adopted homeland. He was named head of project's Theoretical Division, and they designed a bomb that did indeed work.
Upon seeing the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, Bethe immediately became an activist for nuclear disarmament. He wrote of the futility of the so-called "Star Wars" missile defense system, and worked with the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, the Federation of American Scientists, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Until his death, Bethe continued to use a slide rule, instead of a calculator.
Father: Albrecht Bethe (Professor of physiology)
Mother: Anna Kuhn
Wife: Rose Ewald (daughter of Prof. P.P. Ewald; m. 1939, one son, one daughter)
Son: Henry
Daughter: Monica
University: University of Frankfurt
University: PhD Physics, University of Munich (1928)
Professor: University of Tübingen (-1933)
Professor: Cornell University (1937-75, emeritus thereafter)
Manhattan Project
American Philosophical Society
American Physical Society President (1954)
American Astronomical Society
Bill Bradley for President
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Board of Directors
Council for a Livable World
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Federation of American Scientists
JASON
National Academy of Sciences
Royal Society Foreign Member
Henry Draper Medal 1947
Max Planck Medal 1955
Enrico Fermi Award 1961
Eddington Medal 1961
Rumford Prize 1963
Nobel Prize for Physics 1967
APS Leo Szilard Award 1981 (with Henry W. Kendall)
Vannevar Bush Award 1985
Oersted Medal 1993
Bruce Medal 2001
National Medal of Science
Naturalized US Citizen 1941
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Day After Trinity (20-Jan-1981) · Himself
Author of books:
Elementary Nuclear Theory (1948, physics)
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