Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff

Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff

Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff (20 February 1833 in Basel – 23 December 1910 in Basel) was a Swiss physicist. The Hagenbach-Bischoff quota (a voting system) is named after him.

The son of the theologian Karl Rudolf Hagenbach studied physics and mathematics in Basel (with Rudolf Merian), Berlin (with Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and Heinrich Gustav Magnus), Geneva, Paris (with Jules Célestin Jamin) and obtained his Ph.D. in 1855 in Basel. He taught at the “Gewerbeschule” (vocational school) in Basel and was after his habilitation professor for mathematics at the University of Basel for one year.[1] From 1863 to 1906 he was ordinary professor for physics in Basel (successor of Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann). In 1874 he became director of the institute of physics at the newly founded “Bernoullianum” in Basel, and from 1874 to 1879 he was president of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.[2]

Hagenbach-Bischoff was involved in the popularisation of science and at the “Bernoullianum” he gave more than 100 popular talks,[3] such as one in 1896 on the newly discovered X rays.[4]

Notes

  1. Biographical information are taken from obituary of Henri Veillon and from History of the physics department of Basel University (pp. 3 and 4).
  2. The information on the Swiss Academy of Sciences is contained in the following list of presidents.
  3. See Veillon, page 53.
  4. See Domman, p. 59 and Figure 24 after p. 447.

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