Francis Eugene Simon
Simon, Francis Eugene (1893-1956) was a German-born British physicist. He made important contributions to science in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat and other forms of energy and of the conversion of energy from one form to another. Simon specialized in cryogenics, the study of material at very low temperatures. In particular, he investigated the properties of liquid helium at very low temperatures.
Franz Eugen Simon was born on July 2, 1893, in Berlin, Germany. He later adopted the English spelling Francis Eugene. Simon served in the German army from 1913 to 1918, during World War I (1914–1978), and received the Iron Cross first class.
Simon received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Berlin in December 1921. He worked at the university from 1921 to 1927, eventually reaching the rank of associate professor.
In 1931, Simon accepted the chair of physical chemistry at the Technical University in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). In 1933, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, gained control of the German government and began to place restrictions on the country's Jews. Simon, who was Jewish, left Germany and accepted a research grant at the Clarendon Laboratory of Oxford University in Oxford, England.
Simon became a reader in thermodynamics at Oxford in 1936. He became a British citizen in 1938. During World War II (1939–1945), Simon worked on the separation of uranium isotopes (fissionable uranium-235 from ordinary uranium) in the development of the atomic bomb.
From 1945 to 1956, Simon was professor of thermodynamics at Oxford University. He received the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 1948 and was knighted in 1954. Simon died on Oct. 31, 1956, in Oxford.