Robert Otto Pohl


Robert Otto Pohl was a German-American physicist, specialized in condensed matter physics topics such as amorphous solids, glass, thermal conductivity, and thin films, who was the Goldwin Smith Emeritus Professor of Physics at Cornell University. He developed the 3ω-method, widely used to measure thermal conductivities. He is also known for showing that thermal properties of glass are different from crystalline solids at low temperatures.

Biography

Robert O. Pohl was born in Göttingen in 1929. His father was the physicist Robert Wichard Pohl, whose maternal grandfather was , a member of the Hamburg Parliament. After completing undergraduate study at the University of Freiburg, Robert O. Pohl matriculated as a graduate student at the University of Erlangen. There he graduated with a Diplom in 1955 and a doctorate in 1957 and worked as an assistant in physics for the academic year 1957–1958. He emigrated to the United States in 1958.
At Cornell University he was a research associate, a full professor from 1968 to 2000, and Goldwin Smith Emeritus Professor of Physics from 2000 to 2024. He held visiting appointments at RWTH Aachen University, the University of Stuttgart, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of Konstanz, the University of Regensburg, New Zealand's University of Canterbury, China's Tongji University, and the Nuclear Research Center in Jülich.

Research

Robert O. Pohl has done research on experimental investigations of glass and glassy materials, as well as heat transport and lattice transport behavior in crystalline solids and in amorphous solids, structure of glass, cryogenic techniques, and energy problems.
With R. C. Zeller, Pohl worked on glass at low temperatures. They showed in 1971 that glasses behave similarly at low temperature but do not follow the Debye model.
His doctoral students included Venkatesh Narayanamurti.
Springer published Robert Wichard Pohl's 3-volume edition of Einführung in die Physik with many later editions and a 2-volume edition edited by Klaus Lüders and Robert O. Pohl. Robert O. Pohl added videos of demonstration experiments for the latest editions.
Pohl died in Göttingen, Germany on August 30, 2024, at the age of 94.

Pohl's opinions on nuclear waste disposal

In addition to his main research interests, Robert O. Pohl was concerned about radioactive waste disposal and its effects on the environment and human health. During the Carter administration he served on a Presidential advisory committee on nuclear waste disposal.
In a 1982 article published in Physics Today, Pohl wrote:

Honors and awarsd

In 1985 he received the Oliver E. Buckley [Condensed Matter Prize] for "his pioneering work on low energy excitations in amorphous materials and continued important contributions to the understanding of thermal transport in solids." It was considered the highest recognition in condensed matter physics.
Pohl was elected in 1972 a fellow of the American Physical Society, in 1984 a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1999 a member of the National Academy of Sciences. For the academic year 1973–1974 he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1980 he received the Humboldt US Senior Scientist Award.

Selected publications

Articles

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Books

  • translated from Pohls Einführung in die Physik, Band. 1 : Mechanik, Akustik und Wärmelehre by William D. Brewers
  • translated from Pohls Einführung in die Physik, Band.2 : Elektizitaetslehre und Optik by William D. Brewer