| Carl Wagner | |
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Carl Wagner
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| Born | May 25, 1901 Leipzig, Germany |
| Died | December 10, 1977 Göttingen |
| Nationality | Germany |
| Fields | physical chemistry |
Carl Wilhelm Wagner (born May 25, 1901 in Leipzig, Germany, died December 10, 1977 in Göttingen) was a physical chemist. He stated an important law of oxidation kinetics in 1933.
He was awarded the Bunsen-Denkmünze of the Bunsen Society in 1961.
Wagner, H. Ulich, and W. Schottky co-authored the famous book Thermodynamik in 1929.
Wagner and Schottky proposed the point defect-mediated mechanism of mass transport in solids, Wagner then extended the analysis to electronic defects.
For these works and for his subsequent research on local equilibrium, his oxidation rate theory, and the concept of counter diffusion of cations, Wagner is considered by some as the "father of solid state chemistry."
In 1933, Wagner spent one year at the University of Hamburg, then moved to the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, where he stayed until 1945. From 1945 to 1949, he was a scientific advisor at Fort Bliss, Texas. From 1949 to 1958, Wagner was a professor of metallurgy at MIT. In 1958, he moved back to Germany and assumed the position of Director of the Max Planck Institute of Physical Chemistry at Göttingen, from which he retired in 1966.