Marietta Blau

Biography

Blau was born on 29 April 1894, in Vienna, to Mayer (Markus) Blau (1854–1919), and music publisher, and his wife Florentine Goldzweig. (died 1928).

Blau was schooled at Hegelgasse 19, the Imperial and Royal Teacher Training Institute then from 1910 Rahlgasse 4 girls' grammar school. After having obtained the general certificate of education from the girls' high school run by the Association for the Extended Education of Women,AHS-Rahlgasse https://www.ahs-rahlgasse.at In 1888 an association was founded with the aim of establishing a girls' high school. This goal was achieved in 1892 with the founding of the first girls' grammar school. The school founder was Marianne Hainisch. Our school was the first grammar school for girls in what is now the Republic of Austria, i.e. the first school that gave girls a higher education entrance qualification. The first girls' class was opened in Hegelgasse with 30 girls. But it was not until 1903 that the school was given public rights, and the institution was characterized by a high intellectual level from the very beginning. In 1910 they moved to the house at Rahlgasse 4, Vienna's 6th district. During the Nazi era, the school was nationalized and Jewish students were expelled. Blau studied physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna from 1914 to 1918; her PhD, on the absorption of gamma radiation, was awarded in March 1919. Blau's thesis was approved by F.S. Exner and Stefan Meyer.

Early career

From 1919 to 1923, Blau held several positions in industrial and university research institutions in Austria and Germany; in 1921, she moved to Berlin to work at a manufacturer of x-ray tubes, a position she left to become an assistant at the Institute for Medical Physics at the University of Frankfurt am Main. From 1923 on, she worked as an unpaid scientist at the Institut für Radiumforschung of the ÖAW in Vienna. A stipend by the Austrian Association of University Women made it possible for her to do research also in Göttingen and Paris (1932/1933) at the Curie Institute.

From 1923 until 1938, Blau produced techniques using nuclear emulsion. The methodical goals which she pursued were the identification of particles, in particular alpha-particles and protons, and the determination of their energy based on the characteristics of the tracks they left in emulsions; there, she developed a photographic emulsion technique used in the study of cosmic rays, being the first scientist to use nuclear emulsions to detect neutrons. For this work, Blau and her former student Hertha Wambacher received the Lieben Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1937. It was her greatest success when, also in 1937, she and Wambacher discovered "disintegration stars" in photographic plates that had been exposed to cosmic radiation at an altitude of 2,300 metres (≈7,500 feet) above sea level, a height they attained at a research station established by Victor Hess atop Hafelekar Mountain. These stars are the patterns of particle tracks from nuclear reactions (spallation events) of cosmic-ray particles with nuclei of the photographic emulsion.

As antisemitism grew in Austria during the late 1930s, Jewish researchers faced expulsion from their positions and Blau was no exception; in response to Georg Stettner (Nazi party member and director of the Institut für Radiumforschung) pressuring her to turn over her research and leave, she was invited to the University of Oslo.

Émigré

Via Ellen Gleditsch, Blau left Austria for this research visit to Oslo on March 12, 1938, and because of the subsequent annexation she couldn't return; she eventually obtained a teaching position at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City and later at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. En route to Mexico City, Nazi officials seized her photographic plates at the airport in Hamburg. While in Mexico, Blau was personally acquainted with Guido Beck. Blau took the opportunity to move to the United States in 1944. |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130415170235/http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v65/i10/p8_s1?bypassSSO=11 |url-status = dead |archive-date = 15 April 2013 |url-access= subscription

Post-war

In the United States, Blau worked in industry until 1948, afterwards (until 1960) at Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Miami. At these institutions, she was responsible for the application of the photographic method of particle detection in high-energy experiments at particle accelerators.

She was nominated several times, during the period 1950 to 1957, for the Nobel Prize in Physics and once for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Erwin Schrödinger and Hans Thirring.

In 1960, Blau returned to Austria and conducted scientific work at the Institute for Radium Research until 1964 – again without pay. She headed a working group analyzing particle-track photographs from experiments at CERN and supervised a dissertation in this field. In 1962, she received the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, but an attempt to make her also a corresponding member of the academy was not successful.

Legacy

In 1950, Cecil Powell received the Nobel Prize in Physics for work (partially) based on the work of Blau, specifically the development of the photographic film method for particle detection and the discovery of the meson.

The Marietta Blau-Stipendium a government scholarship (of the Bundesministeriums für Frauen, Wissenschaft und Forschung)

Marietta-Blau-Saal is a room in University Vienna sometimes used for coffee-breaks.

Marietta-Blau-Gasse in area 22 of Vienna is a street name.

Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics (merger of Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics and the Institute of High Energy Physics (HEPHY)).

Death

Marietta Blau died in Vienna from cancer on 27 January 1970. Her illness was related to her unprotected handling of radioactive substances as well as her cigarette smoking over many years. No obituary appeared in any scientific publication. Blau was interred in group 6 of the new section for Jewish burials of Wiener Zentralfriedhof at row 2, grave 16.

Works

1950s

Report on the discovery of stars produced by cosmic rays:

• Blau, Marietta. "Bericht über die Entdeckung der durch kosmische Strahlung erzeugten Sterne." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 159 (1950): 53–57.

1940s

• Blau, Marietta and Smith, J. E. "Beta-ray Measurements and Units." Nucleonics, 2 no. 6 (1948): 67–74.
• Blau, Marietta and Carlin, J. R. "Industrial Applications of Radioactivity." Electronics, 21 no. 1–4 (1948): 78–82.
• Blau, Marietta and Dreyfus, B. "The Multiplier Phott-Tube in Radioactive Measurements." The Review of Scientific Instruments, 16, no. 9 (1945): 245–248.
• Blau, Marietta and Feuer, I. "Radioactive Light Sources." Journal of the Optical Society of America, 36 no. 10 (1946): 576–580.

1930s

• Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha. "Über Versuche durch Neutronen ausgelöste Protonen photographisch nachzuweisen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 180.
• Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha. "Über Versuche durch Neutronen ausgelöste Protonen photographisch nachzuweisen II" Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 617–20.
• Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha."Über das Verhalten konloser Emulsionen gegenüber Alpha Partikeln." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 467–474.
• Blau, Marietta and Kara-Michailova, Elisabeth. "Über die durchdringende Strahlung des Poloniums." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 140 (1931): 615–622.
• Blau, Marietta. "Über photographische Untersuchungen mit radioactiven Strahlungen." In Zehn Jahre Forschung auf dem Physikalisch-Medizinischen Grenzgebiet, edited by F. Dessauer. 390–98. Leipzig: Georg Thieme, 1931.
• Blau, Marietta and Rona, Elisabeth. "Anwendungen der Chamié'schen photographischen Methode zur Prüfung des chemischen Verhaltens von Polonium." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 139 (1930): 275–279.

1920s

• Blau, Marietta. "Über photographische Intensitätsmessungen von Poloniumpräparaten." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 137 (1928): 259–268.
• Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung von H-Strahlen aus Paraffin und Atomfragmenten." Zeitschrift für Physik, 48 (1928): 751–764.
• Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung naturliche H-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 136 (1927): 469–480.
• Blau, Marietta. "Die photographische Wirkung von H-Strahlen aus Paraffin und Aluminium." Zeitschrift für Physik, 34 (1925): 285–295.
• Blau, Marietta and Rona, Elisabeth. "Ionisation durch alpha-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 135 (1926): 573–585.
• Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung naturliche H-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 134 (1925): 427–436.

1910s

On the absorption of divergent γ-radiation:

• Blau, Marietta. "Über die Absorption divergenter γ-Strahlung." Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 127 (1918): 1253–1279.

References

Literature

• Robert Rosner & Brigitte Strohmaier (eds.) (2003) Marietta Blau – Sterne der Zertrümmerung. Biographie einer Wegbereiterin der modernen Teilchenphysik. Böhlau, Vienna (in German)
• Brigitte Strohmaier & Robert Rosner (2006) Marietta Blau – Stars of Disintegration. Biography of a pioneer of particle physics. Ariadne, Riverside, California
• Leopold Halpern & Maurice Shapiro (2006) "Marietta Blau" in Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics, Nina Byers and Gary Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press .
• {{DSB

References

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2. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteilung 2a, 127 (1918): 1253–1279.
3. "Marietta Blau – Gedenktafel, Kunstwerk im öffentlichen Raum". [[City of Vienna.
4. Rentetzi, Maria. (27 February 2009). "Marietta Blau. The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women". [[Jewish Women's Archive]].
5. Mark Wolverton. (10 August 2021). "Distillations Magazine: The Dark Stars of Marietta Blau". [[Science History Institute]].
6. Anne Hardy. (16 April 2020). "Marietta Blau: Vergessene Pionierin der Kernphysik". Publikationsserver der [[Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main]].
7. "Josef Weinberger History". [[Petrucci Music Library]].
8. Michael Fembek. (7 November 2024). "Unbedankte Atomforscherin Marietta Blau". [[Der Standard.
9. Robert W. Rosner. (2017-07-13). "Marietta Blau: Entwicklung bahnbrechender Methoden auf dem Gebiet der Teilchenphysik". Institute for Science Outreach, Hasenhutgasse 9/2/7 1120 Vienna.
10. Stadler, Helga. "Marietta Blau". [[Universität Wien]].
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13. (25 August 2014). "Marietta Blau, Pionera de la física de partículas que vino a México recomendada por Einstein".
14. (18 December 2024). "Leopold Halpern March 5, 1999 Interviewed by: Maria Rentetzi". NIELS BOHR LIBRARY & ARCHIVES [[American Institute of Physics.
15. (1 April 2020). "Nobel Prize – Nomination Archive: Marietta Blau". The Nobel Foundation.
16. Sime, Ruth Lewin. (2013). "Marietta Blau: Pioneer of Photographic Nuclear Emulsions and Particle Physics". Physics in Perspective.
17. Perlmutter, Arnold. (8 October 2001). "Marietta Blau's Work After World War II".
18. "Preisträger und Preisträgerinnen des Erwin Schrödinger-Preises". [[Austrian Academy of Sciences]].
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20. Carlson, Per. (1 October 2012). "Marietta Blau in the history of cosmic rays". [[Physics Today]].
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