EPS 50th anniversary: Klaus Gottstein, among the first EPS members
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the European Physical Society interviewed members from the very beginning. Klaus Gottstein, a German physicist and member of the EPS since 1968, kindly answered our questions.
How did you come to study physics?
I was motivated by a good physics teacher at high school and by the research atmosphere in a small physical development laboratory in Berlin where I found employment as an apprentice technical lab assistant after having completed high school (Abitur) and six months practical training in a machine factory.
In which field did you start to work? Did you work in the same field or did you discover new areas of interest during your career?
I started to work as a physicist in the field of elementary particle physics using nuclear emulsions at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen, in close cooperation with the group of Prof. C. F. Powell at the University of Bristol.
Later on, I spent a year at the University of California at Berkeley with the group of Prof. Luis W. Alvarez using the bubble chamber technique at the Bevatron. After my return to the Max Planck Institute for Physics, my group continued with bubble chamber, spark chamber and various counter techniques which we applied increasingly at the accelerators at CERN and DESY. From 1971 to 1974 I served as Science Attaché at the German Embassy in Washington D.C. Thereafter, I had appointments as Secretary General of the Scientific Forum of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as member of the International Council of the Amaldi Conferences on Scientific Questions of Global Security, and as director of a research unit within the Max Planck Society on problems of science and society.
What are the events that marked you most during your career?
I was marked by my encounters with remarkable and exemplary personalities such as Werner Heisenberg, Cecil Powell, Luis Alvarez, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. My participation in the international Rochester Conferences on nuclear physics on both sides of the Iron Curtain, irrespective of political differences, was also important to me.
Which discoveries did you find most impressive since you started your career?
The development of the Standard Model of elementary particles out of the “zoo” of individual particles, discovered one by one at the time of the beginning of my career, is certainly the most impressive.
Did you see significant changes in the way physicists work in the last 50 years?
Whereas 50 years ago significant discoveries were made by individual physicists or by small groups of them, it is now not uncommon that significant discoveries are reported in publications with far more than one hundred authors.
How did you get to know about the European Physical Society?
I first heard about considerations regarding the desirability of founding a European Physical Society (EPS) at a Conference in Pisa in April of 1966 to which Prof. Gilberto Bernardini, at that time President of the Italian Physical Society and former Director of Research of CERN, had invited European heads of groups involved in elementary particle research to discuss ways to organise collaboration in physics more effectively. I had accepted that invitation very gladly. The meeting took part in the Palazzo dei Cavalieri della Scuola Normale Superiore. From Germany the physicists Harry Lehmann, Jordan, Bopp, Gentner, Heintze, Wolfgang Paul, Filthuth, Jauch, Höhler, among others, were present, but I also talked to Danysz, Berthelot, Puppi, Cresti, Fidecaro, Van Hove and others. Apart from Bernardini, also Hamilton, de Groot, Pickavance and Weisskopf gave lectures. Four different Working Committees were formed. One controversial subject was the competition between Nuovo Cimento and the journal Nuclear Physics within the field of high energy physics. One of the committees dealt with the foundation of a European Physical Society. I was assigned to that committee because I had spoken positively about that subject in the earlier discussions. In 1966, the EPS did not yet exist but the Pisa meeting of that year initiated its foundation in 1968.
Why did you decide to become an Individual Member?
To be an Individual Member of EPS followed from my role in the 1966 Pisa Conference.
What is your preferred source of information about the EPS?
I like to read about the EPS in Europhysics News.
What is interesting for you as a member of the European Physical Society?
The membership of EPS is an additional source of information for me.
Do you have a role model in physics?
I have no role model in physics other than perhaps Niels Bohr or Enrico Fermi.
Would you recommend an interesting reading in physics?
I am reading at present the book “The Pope of Physics” by Gino Segré about the life of Enrico Fermi and find it very interesting.
What are your main activities and hobbies now?
My main activity now is my daily work in my Emeritus Office as a Guest Professor, reading journals, writing brief articles and letters to the editors and to people like you who are asking questions about the past. My hobby is history.
What would you say to young people who consider studying physics?
I tell young people that physics is the basis of modern information and communication technology, and it will have to supply the solution to energy supply for mankind, so it is highly worth studying. Moreover, it is challenging philosophically.
