Wolfgang Gentner (23 July 1906 in Frankfurt am Main – 4 September 1980 in Heidelberg)[1] was a German experimental nuclear physicist.
From 1932 to 1935 he had a fellowship which allowed him to do postdoctoral research and study at Curie's Radium Institute at the University of Paris.
At the end of 1938 and early 1939, he visited the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley; upon his return to Germany, he participated in the construction of a cyclotron at Heidelberg.
During World War II, he participated in the German nuclear energy project, also called the Uranium Club.
When it came time for Gentner to submit his Habilitationsschrift, Die Absorption, Streuung und Sekundärstrahlung harter Gamma-Strahlen (The absorption, scattering and secondary hard gamma rays), the relations between the KWImF and the University of Heidelberg were so strained that Habilitation was not possible there.
In these times, Gentner continued his research on the nuclear photoeffect, with the aid of the Van de Graaff generator, which had been upgraded to produce energies just under 1 MeV.
As a result of the visit, Gentner formed a cooperative relationship with Emilio G. Segrè and Donald Cooksey.
The invitees included Walther Bothe, Siegfried Flügge, Hans Geiger, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Gerhard Hoffmann, Josef Mattauch, and Georg Stetter.
A second meeting was held soon thereafter and included Klaus Clusius, Robert Döpel, Werner Heisenberg, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker.
With Bothe being one of the principals, Gentner was soon drawn into work for the Uranverein, along with other colleagues, such as Arnold Flammersfeld and Peter Herbert Jensen.
[14][15][16] After the armistice between France and Germany in the summer of 1940, Bothe and Gentner received orders to inspect the cyclotron Frédéric Joliot-Curie had built in Paris.
According to author Robert Jungk in his landmark work, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, Gentner only agreed to take over Joliot-Curie's laboratory after he had received Joliot-Curie's express consent - and the two men crafted a secret agreement that the laboratory would not complete work that supported the German war effort.
[17] While in Paris, Gentner intervened personally to free both Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Paul Langevin after they were arrested and detained.
[4][5] During 1956 and 1957, Gentner was a member of the Arbeitskreis Kernphysik (Nuclear Physics Working Group) of the Fachkommission II "Forschung und Nachwuchs" (Commission II "Research and Growth") of the Deutschen Atomkommission (DAtK, German Atomic Energy Commission).
Other members of the Nuclear Physics Working Group in both 1956 and 1957 were: Werner Heisenberg (chairman), Hans Kopfermann (vice-chairman), Fritz Bopp, Walther Bothe, Otto Haxel, Willibald Jentschke, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Josef Mattauch, Wolfgang Riezler [de], Wilhelm Walcher, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker.
At the end of his term as section chairman, Gentner had two medical operations, one for cataracts, which were attributed to neutron radiation exposure from his early years of experimental nuclear research.
With his knowledge of French science, Gentner helped Heinz Maier-Liebnitz with the establishment of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble.
Gentner also helped Christoph Schmelzer establish the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschungs (GSI, Society for Heavy Ion Research), in Darmstadt.
[4][23] During his career, Gentner demonstrated his interest in Kosmochemie und Archäometrie (cosmochemistry and archaeometry), which are fields at the intersection of cultural and natural sciences.
The reports were confiscated under the Allied Operation Alsos and sent to the United States Atomic Energy Commission for evaluation.