| tamu |
2007-02-19 04:56 |
Ernst Abbe and the Foundation
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Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Ernst Abbe, who passed away on January 14, 1906—just a few days short of his 65th birthday. Abbe is well known for his seminal contributions to scientific microscope construction, which include his diffraction theory for image formation, and the formulation of the sine condition and Abbe number. He was also a noted entrepreneur, astronomer and social reformer. @^Kw\s
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Ernst Abbe was born in Eisenach, Germany, on January 23, 1840. He spent his childhood in poverty—which perhaps explains why he was committed to social welfare for the rest of his life. After graduating from secondary school, he began his studies at the University of Jena. There, Abbe attended lectures in mathematics and physics. ( >om.FM
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Early on, his professors noted his acumen in science. Abbe won a scientific competition in his third semester and, later, he was awarded a scholarship by city officials at Eisenach. After completing two years at Jena, Abbe took up three additional years of studies at the University of Göttingen, where he attended lectures in mathematics given by Bernhard Reimann, as well as lectures in meterology, optics and astronomy. |y]8gL^
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