Personally nominated for the Nobel Prize a record 84 times, Arnold Johannes
Wilhelm Sommerfeld was one of the most influential physicists of all time, both because of his
own accomplishments in the field and the many dozens of his students who turned into superstars
in the world of science (including having four doctoral students go on to win the Nobel
Prize, along with three of his other postgraduate students also taking home the award- the most
eventual Nobel laureates all taught by one person).
Born on December 5, 1868 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Sommerfeld began his career as a
student of mathematics and the physical sciences at Albertina (aka University of Königsberg)
in his hometown, where he received a Ph.D. on October 24, 1891.
After a year of compulsive military service ended in 1893, unlike so many academics of
his era, Sommerfeld continued to serve as a volunteer for the next eight years on the
side.
Physically impressive, with a Prussian bearing and wearing a fencing scar on his magnificently
mustachioed face, while in the service, Sommerfeld was famously described as managing “to give
the impression of a colonel of the hussars,” rather than a book-worm academic.
As for that scar, in his first year of study, the near “compulsory drinking bouts and
fencing duels” not only resulted in said scar, but also hindered his studies significantly,
which he later came to regret as wasted time.
Apparently making up for lost efforts in his youth, Sommerfeld left Königsberg for the
University of Göttingen and after two years as an assistant to more experienced mathematics
professors, he earned his Privatdozent (authorization to teach at the university level) in 1895.
Rapidly moving up the ranks, he was appointed to chair the mathematics department at the
Bergakademie in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in 1897.
The following year, he became editor of the famous Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften,
a post he held through 1926.
Sommerfeld moved on to become Chair of Applied Mechanics at the Königliche Technische Hochschule
Aachen, and it was in Aachen that he produced his theory of hydrodynamics.
Also at Aachen, Sommerfeld mentored Peter Debye, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
in 1936 for “his contributions to the study of molecular structure.”
In 1906, Sommerfeld accepted the position as director of the new Theoretical Physics
Institute at the University of Munich, where he mentored Werner Heisenberg in hydrodynamics
theory; Heisenberg later won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 “for the creation of
quantum mechanics.”
While in Munich, Sommerfeld also mentored Wolfgang Pauli on his thesis on quantum theory,
and Pauli also went on to win a Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1945, for his discovery of
the eponymous Pauli exclusion principle (which stated that two or more identical fermions
can not be in the same quantum state within a quantum system at the same time).
If all that wasn’t enough, he also mentored Hans Bethe while at the University of Munich;
Bethe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his theory of stellar nucleosynthesis
(i.e., when chemical elements in stars change due to nuclear fusion).
While his own direct contributions to advancing the world of physics were prodigious, including
his pioneering work in quantum theory, it was arguably for his teaching ability that
Sommerfeld was most revered in his lifetime, with Albert Einstein once remarking, “What
I especially admire about you is that you have, as it were, pounded out of the soil
such a large number of young talents.”
Mathematician Morris Kline further stated of Sommerfeld that he “was at the forefront
of the work in electromagnetic theory, relativity and quantum theory and he was the great systematizer
and teacher who inspired many of the most creative physicists in the first thirty years
of this century.”
Famed Jewish mathematician, physicist, and Nobel Prize winner Max Born (who was forced
to flee Germany in 1933) went on about Sommerfeld’s talent for cultivating young minds who so
often went on to great scientific achievements of their own:
Theoretical physics is a subject which attracts youngsters with a philosophical mind who speculate
about the highest principles without sufficient foundations.
It was just this type of beginner that he knew how to handle, leading them step by step
to a realisation of their lack of actual knowledge and providing them with the skill necessary
for fertile research.
… He had the rare ability to have time to spare for his pupils, in spite of his duties
and scientific work.
… In this friendly and informal way of teaching a great part was played by invitations to
join a skiing party on the ‘Sudelfeld’ two hours by rail from Munich.
There he and his mechanic … were joint owners of a ski hut.
In the evenings, when the simple meal was cooked, the dishes were washed, the weather
and snow properly discussed, the talk invariably turned to mathematical physics, and this was
the occasion for the receptive students to learn the master’s inner thoughts.
Going on about the man himself, Born stated,
Arnold Sommerfeld was one of the most distinguished representatives of the transition period between
classical and modern theoretical physics.
The work of his youth was still firmly anchored in the conceptions of the nineteenth century;
but when in the first decennium of the century the flood of new discoveries, experimental
and theoretical, broke the dams of tradition, he became a leader of the new movement, and
in combining the two ways of thinking he exerted a powerful influence on the younger generation.
This combination of a classical mind, to whom clarity of conception and mathematical rigour
are essential, with the adventurous spirit of a pioneer, are the roots of his scientific
success, while his exceptional gift of communicating his ideas by spoken and written word made
him a great teacher.
Adding to his list of achievements, Sommerfeld eventually became chair of the Deutsche Physikalische
Gesellschaft in 1918, a position previously held by Albert Einstein.
With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, however, Sommerfeld was forced to watch many
of his esteemed colleagues have to flee the country.
As the aforementioned Morris Kline notes,
Sommerfeld’s life was saddened toward the end of his career by events in Germany.
Anti-Semitism, always present in that country, became virulent in the Hitler period and Sommerfeld
was obliged to witness the emigration of famous colleagues, including Einstein.
All he could do was use the friendships he had built up during a one-year stay in the
United States and a one-year round-the-world trip to help place the refugees.
The loss of so many of its best men in this way together with World War II, destroyed
the scientific strength of Germany, and Sommerfeld felt obliged to continue teaching until 1947,
long after the usual retirement age of 65.
On that note, Sommerfeld had intended to retire much earlier, in 1936, putting forth one of
his prized pupils, the aforementioned Nobel Prize winner Werner Heisenberg, as his hoped
successor.
However, as Heisenberg, like Sommerfeld, was considered by the Nazi party to be a Jewish
sympathizer, ultimately the decidedly unaccomplished anti-Semite Wilhem Muller, with a lot of help
from the Reich Education Ministry, was very controversial appointed to replace Sommerfeld
as Professor of Theoretical Physics, despite Muller not even being a theoretical physicist.
(Unsurprisingly, Muller was dismissed from the position in 1945 as a part of the denazification
process that followed WWII.)
As for Sommerfeld’s once patriotic views, he wrote to Einstein shortly after Hitler
took power,
I can assure you that the misuse of the word ‘national’ by our rulers has thoroughly
broken me of the habit of national feelings that was so pronounced in my case.
I would now be willing to see Germany disappear as a power and merge into a pacified Europe.
In any event, as for his own Nobel Prize aspirations, as alluded to, Sommerfeld’s contributions
to theoretical physics were many and included groundbreaking work in quantum theory (including
co-discovering the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantization rules in 1915), electromagnetism and hydrodynamics,
and significantly advanced knowledge of X-ray wave theory, among other things.
Among his many awards were the Max-Planck Medal, the Lorentz Medal and the Oersted Medal,
and he was also a member of the Royal Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the
Indian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
However, although he was nominated an astounding and record setting 84 times (the only other
person close is Otto Stern, who was nominated 82 times before finally winning in 1943),
Sommerfeld never won a Nobel Prize.
His nominations for Physics were made in 1917, 1918, 1919 (twice), 1920, 1922 (four times),
1923 (twice), 1924, 1925 (six times), 1926 (three times), 1927 (three times), 1928 (three
times), 1929 (nine times), 1930 (four times), 1931 (twice), 1932 (five times), 1933 (eight
times), 1934 (six times), 1935, 1936 (twice), 1937 (eight times), 1940, 1948, 1949 (three
times), 1950 (three times) and 1951 (four times).
Sommerfeld died on April 26, 1951 at the age of 82 as a result of a traffic accident that
occurred while taking his grandchildren for a walk.
At the time, he was quite hard of hearing and did not hear shouted warnings before he
stepped in front of a moving truck.
The distinguished scientist died two months later as a result of the injuries sustained
in that incident.