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Leo Wenzel Pollak

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Leo Wenzel Pollak (September 23, 1888 in Prague – November 24, 1964 in Dublin) was a geophysicist, meteorologist and pioneer in scientific data processing.[1][2] His career was spent at the Geophysical Institute in Prague, where he rose to the rank of professor and director (1911-1939), the Irish Meteorological Service (1939-1947), and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (1947-1963).

In 1950, he was credited as the second author of the second edition of Victor Conrad's 1944 book, "Methods in Climatology."[3]

Life and career

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His parents were the writers Simon Pollak and Dorothea Glück.[4] In 1890, his father received patent no. 55433 for a telephone conversation counter.[5]

From 1906 to 1910 he studied physics and geophysics at the German University in Prague and in 1910 received his doctorate under Rudolf Spitaler[6][7] with the thesis "The duration and intensity of sunshine on the Douneuberge near Mileschau".[8]

In 1911 he became a private lecturer at the Geophysical Institute in Prague and became friends with Albert Einstein who was a professor there. When Pollak sent a circular in August 1911 to look for astronomers who had observed the light deflection effect predicted by Einstein in the gravitational field, Erwin Freundlich accepted the challenge.[9]

In 1922 he completed his habilitation and in 1927 he became an associate professor.[2] In February 1929 he became, as Spitaler's successor, full professor and director of the Geophysical Institute in Prague and also director of the Meteorological Observatory in Milesovka, 20 miles south of Teplitz-Schönau.[10]

In 1939 he emigrated to Ireland , where he worked for the Irish Meteorological Service. From 1947 to 1963 he taught as a professor at the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS).[2]

In the 1940s he worked with P. J. Nolan, A. L. Metnieks and others to develop the first condensation nucleus counters.[11][12]

Pollack's interest in condensation nuclei, cloud formation and atmospheric physics led him to make predictions about atmospheric warming. In the 1950s he gave a statutory public lecture at DIAS on global warming–even saying that someday "bananas will grow in Dublin."[13]

Data processing

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In 1934 Pollak and F. Kaiser published a paper showing how punch card machines could be used to perform scientific calculations.[14] Pollak was an early pioneer in "big data" and what we would now call data mining–he was an early adopter of Hollerith punched cards and automated tabulation for analyzing meteorological data.[15] One aspect of this was searching for periodicities and trends in noisy data sets.[6] He spent a lot of time and energy using mechanical calculators and tables to assist in Fourier analysis.[16]

Selected publications

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  • 1930 Die Rationalisierung und Mechanisierung der Verwaltung und Verrechnung geophysikalischen Zahlenmaterials. Das Lochkartenverfahren Naturwissenschaften (in German), 18 (16), pp. 343–349
  • 1934 Neue Anwendungen des Lochkartenverfahrens in der Geophysik. (New applications of the punch card method in geophysics), [with F. Kaiser] in: Hollerith-Nachrichten. No 44, p. 574–584
  • 1945 The Calibration of a Photo-Electric Nucleus Counter [with P. J. Nolan], Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
  • 1951 Methods in climatology [with V. Conrad], American Journal of Physics
  • 1959 Instruction for Use of Photo-Electric Condensation Nucleus Counters–Their Care and Maintenance [with A. L. Metnieks]
  • 1960 Intrinsic Calibration of the Photo-Electric Condensation Nucleus Counter Model 1957 with Convergent Light-Beam [with A. L. Metnieks]
  • 1962 On the validity of Boltzmann's distribution law for the charges of aerosol particles in electrical equilibrium [with A. L. Metnieks]
  • 1950 [BOOK] "Methods in Climatology" [with V. Conrad], Pk. Harvard University Press ISBN 0674187857

References

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  1. ^ Leo Wenzel Pollak Meteorologische Zeitschrift [Meteorological Journal], Vol 18-19, p. 124
  2. ^ a b c Pollak, Leo Wenzel Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie [German Biographical Encyclopedia], p. 16, ISBN 9783598250385
  3. ^ Review of "Methods in Climatology" by V. Conrad and L. W. Pollak, American Journal of Physics, Volume 19, Issue 1
  4. ^ Pollak, Leo Wenzel Who's Who in Central & East Europe, 1933
  5. ^ Conversation counter, patented for Simon Pollak Deutsches Telefon Museum
  6. ^ a b Leo Wenzel Pollak (1888-1964): Czechoslovakian pioneer in scientific data processing IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol 21, Issue 4, Oct–Dec 1999
  7. ^ Rudolf Spitaler. In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950. p. 34
  8. ^ Werner Röder and Herbert A. Strauss International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945, München: Saur, 1983, p. 916, ISBN 3-598-10089-2
  9. ^ Albert Einstein, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Albert Einstein: One hundred authors for Einstein, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: , Wiley-VCH, 2005, pp. 188, ISBN 9783527405794
  10. ^ Meteorological satellites on Milesovka
  11. ^ The History of Condensation Nucleus Counters by Peter H. McMurry, Aerosol Science and Technology, Vol 33, Issue 4, 2000. pp. 297-322
  12. ^ The Evolution of Condensation Nucleus Counters by Thomas C. O'Connor, Department of Physics, National University of Ireland, Galway, March 2001
  13. ^ Marking Earth Day 2020 at DIAS Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, April 22, 2020
  14. ^ L. W. Pollak and F. Kaiser, 1934: "Neue Anwendungen des Lochkarten-Verfahrens in der Geophysik" rvard.9780674187856/html Hollerith Nachrichten
  15. ^ Pollak, L. W. "Further Remarks on Early Uses of Punched Cards in Meteorology and Climatology" Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 27, no. 5, 1946, pp. 195–199
  16. ^ Eight-Place Supplement to Harmonic Analysis and Synthesis Schedules by Senior Professor L. W. Pollak, PhD., DIAS School of Cosmic Physics
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