Dr. Hedwig Kohn

Title: Dr.
Prename: Hedwig
Surname: Kohn
Profession: Physicist
Birthday: 04/05/1887
Place of birth: Breslau
Date of death: 1964
Place of death: Durham, NC
Education: 1906–13 university studies (physics) in Breslau; 1913 doctorate
Career: 1914 assistant researcher, 1915–33 senior assistant in Breslau; 1920–21 scholarship, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin; 1930 university lecturer qualification (*Habilitation*) in Breslau; 1933 banned from teaching; 1933–39 industrial physicist in Breslau (for example research for OSRAM); 1939 escapes to the United States with the help of her colleagues and the International Federation of University Women (IFUW); 1940–41 lecturer at Greensboro College, NC; 1941–51 professor at Wellesley College, MA; 1946 US citizenship; 1952 retirement; until 1963 research associate at Hertha Sponer’s laboratory, Duke University, Durham, NC
Memberships: German Federation of University Women (DAB)
Biographical literature: Brenda P. Winnewisser, “The Emigration of Hedwig Kohn, Physicist, 1940,” *Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte* 18 (1998): 41–58; Brenda P. Winnewisser, “Hedwig Kohn—eine Physikerin des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts,” *Physik Journal* 2 (2003), no. 11: 51–5; Annette Vogt, “Hedwig Kohn,” in *Einsteins Kolleginnen—Physikerinnen gestern und heute*, ed. Annette Vogt and Cornelia Denz (Bielefeld: TeDiC, 2005), 25–7
Major works: *Über das Wesen der Emission der in Flammen leuchtenden Metalldämpfe* (diss.; Breslau: Grass, Barth & Co., 1913); *A Study of Optical Cross-Sections of Various Elements Based on Line Intensity and Temperature Measurements in a Flame Source* (with E. Hinnov; Lancaster, PA: n.p., 1930)