Kurt Starke - Career

Career

From 1937, Starke was an assistant to Otto Hahn at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie (KWIC, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry; today, the Max Planck Institut für Chemie - Otto Hahn Institut), in Berlin-Dahlem. In 1940, scientists in both Germany and America were working on transuranic elements. Starke discovered the transuranic element neptunium (atomic number 93), independently from the American team of Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson. The war and his move to Munich in 1941 delayed publication of his results until 1942.

In 1941, Starke transferred to the Institut für physikalische Chemie under Klaus Clusius at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Shortly after the move, Starke was drafted into military service. It was only through the persistent efforts of Clusius that Starke granted a reprieve. Starke subsequently accepted a position to work with the German group at the Paris cyclotron, initially headed by Wolfgang Gentner, from Walther Bothe's Institut für Physik in Heidelberg. Under Clusius, Starke worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranverein (Uranium Club). Starke worked on the enrichment of the uranium isotope U239, its decay products, and the production of heavy water. In 1943, Starke completed his Habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

As the war raged on, the demand for men to provide armed service resulted in the drafting of many engineers and physicists, especially for the Russian Front; Paul O. Müller, who had worked on the Uranverein, was drafted and died in service on the Russian front. Starke had eluded military service in 1941, but, in a confrontation with Abraham Esau, Hermann Göring’s Bevollmächtiger (plenipotentiary) for nuclear physics research under the Reichsforschungsrat (RFR, Reich Research Council), threatened Starke with transfer to the Russian front in the fall of 1943. It was not until 1944 that Werner Osenberg, head of the planning board at the Reichsforschungsrat, was able to initiate calling back 5000 engineers and scientists from the front to work on research categorized as kriegsentscheidend (decisive for the war effort). By the end of the war, the number recalled had reached 15,000.

From 1944, after completion of his Habilitation, Starke was an assistant at Walther Bothe's Institut für Physik (Institute of Physics) at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für medizinische Forschung (KWImF, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research; today, the Max-Planck Institut für medizinische Forschung), in Heidelberg.

After the conclusion of World War II, between the ravages of the war and the restrictions of the Allied occupation forces in Germany, the prospects of meaningful scientific work were limited. By March 1947, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Kurt Stark, and other younger collaborators with Bothe at the Institut für Physik had left for North America. Stark taught and did research successively at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), University of British Columbia (near Vancouver), and the University of Kentucky ( Lexington, Kentucky).

In 1959, Starke took an appointment at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, where he dedicated himself to the establishment of the Instituts für Kernchemie (Institute of Nuclear Chemistry), and was appointed its director. In 1971, he moved his institute to the premises of the newly created and built Fachbereich Physikalische Chemie (Department of Physical Chemistry), and he was its first Dekan (dean). He remained at Marburg until he achieved emeritus status.