Gustav Heinrich Tammann

Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann was a prominent Baltic German chemist-physicist who made important contributions in the fields of glassy and solid solutions, heterogeneous equilibria, crystallization, and metallurgy. He first predicted the order-disorder transition in alloys.

Biography

Tammann was born in Yamburg. His father, Heinrich Tammann was of Estonian peasant origin and his mother, Matilda Schünmann, was of German origin. Tammann graduated from University of Dorpat in chemistry. He went to Göttingen University in 1903 where he established the first Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in Germany. In 1908 he was appointed director of the Physico-Chemical Institute.
Tammann died in Göttingen at age 77.

In 1900, he discovered the phases of ice, now known as ice II and ice III.
Later, his interests focused on the physics and physical chemistry of metals and alloys. He was also known for the Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann equation, and the Tait–Tammann equation of state which seeks to account for the compressibility of liquids.
in 1919, Tammann predicted the order-disorder transition that is found in alloys at low temperatures. Tamman and Otto Heusler also observed an anomaly in the specific heat of a bronze alloy in 1926, related to the critical points of the disorder-order transition. This transition was demonstrated in 1929 by C. H. Johannsen and J. O Linde using x-ray diffraction.

In 1925, Tammann was awarded Liebig Medal. On 28 May 1936, Tammann was awarded the Eagle Shield of the German Empire, with dedication "The Doyen of German Metallurgy".

Tammann was awarded the following prizes:

The Tammann Commemorative Medal of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde is named after him.