Emil Wiechert

German physicist and geophysicist

Emil Johann Wiechert (26 December 1861 – 19 March 1928) was a German physicist and geophysicist who made many contributions to both fields, including presenting the first verifiable model of a layered structure of the Earth and being among the first to discover the electron. He went on to become the world's first Professor of Geophysics at the University of Göttingen.

Wiechert was born in Tilsit, Province of Prussia, In October 1890 he received his Habilitation in Physics and by 1896, he had achieved the title of Professor. In 1898, he was appointed to the world's first Chair of Geophysics at the University of Göttingen.

Whilst at Königsberg, Wiechert was investigating the nature of X rays and became one of the first to discover that cathode rays are made up of particle streams. He correctly measured the Mass to charge ratio of these particles but failed to take the final step and explain that these particles were a new type of elementary particle the electron. These were the foundations that one of Wiechert's students, Beno Gutenberg, used to discover the three layered Earth in 1914. As part of Felix Klein's efforts to re establish the University of Göttingen as a world leading research centre, Wiechert's tutor, Woldemar Voigt, was lured away from Königsberg and took Wiechert with him. He had initially hoped to become a Professor of theoretical physics but was eventually invited by Klein to found the world's first Institute of Geophysics, becoming the world's first Professor of Geophysics in 1898. He would remain there for the rest of his career, mentoring many students who became world leading geophysicists and seismologists, including Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz and Beno Gutenberg.

During his career he made many other important contributions, writing a number of scientific papers, including a pioneering work on how seismic waves propagate through the Earth. He also devised an improved seismograph and created the field of geological prospecting using small, artificially created earthquakes. Wiechert was also interested in theoretical physics, such as the theory by Albert Einstein. He discussed the role of the ether and related questions with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and others. He married Helene Ziebarth, a lawyer's daughter, in 1908, but the couple did not have children.

Corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Science, 1912. The crater Wiechert on the Moon is named after him.