Hans Geiger

Hans Geiger was a German physicist, inventor, and university teacher who specialized in nuclear physics. He was born in Neustadt an der Weinstraße in 1882 and died in Potsdam in 1945. His citizenship included the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany. He received his education at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and earned a Doctor of Science degree. His doctoral advisors were Eilhard Wiedemann and Ernest Rutherford.

Geiger is noted for the Geiger counter and authored works such as *Handbuch der physik* and *Die kosmische Ultrastrahlung als Forschungsproblem*. He was a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, and the German nuclear program during World War II. He received the Hughes Medal and the Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. He taught at the University of Tübingen, Kiel University, Technische Universität Berlin, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.