America Gains Scientists From Germany

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1941, Page 14

America Gains Scientists From Germany

In spite of the war and the overthrow of many countries science still progresses, states the scientific correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian.". There has been a tremendous concentration of ability in the United States. The latest and most striking acquisition to American scientific strength is Peter Debye, who has recently been appointed and chairman of the department of chemistry at Cornell University. Debye was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics at Berlin. He was the most versatile scientist in Germany, and indeed in the whole world. Though generally regarded as a physicist, he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1936.' Debye is Dutch by birth. His departure is, the most serious single blow that German science has recently received. He has made brilliant discoveries in many fields, and is a splendid lecturer and teacher. Cornell had already taken Bethe as its Professor of Physics, and "it has now also engaged Rossi. Both ttf these fertile discoverers spent some time at Manchester University before going to America. Bethe recently succeeded in explaining the origin of stellar energy, and Rossi is one of the leading investigators of cosmic rays.