Portrait of Otto Stern

Birthday profile

Otto Stern

Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)

Born
February 17, 1888
Died
August 17, 1969
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1888

About Otto Stern

Otto Stern was a German-American experimental physical chemist. He is the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations during the years 1925–1945. In 1943, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton". It was awarded to Stern alone, "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton" (not for the Stern–Gerlach experiment). The Stern-Gerlach-Medaille of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft awarded for excellence in experimental physics is named after him and Gerlach. In 1921, he became a professor at the University of Rostock, which he left in 1923 to become director of the newly founded Institut für Physikalische Chemie at the University of Hamburg. He was awarded the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physics, the first to be awarded since 1939.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Otto Stern timeline

  1. In 1921, he became a professor at the University of Rostock, which he left in 1923 to become director of the newly founded Institut für Physikalische Chemie at the University of Hamburg.
  2. He is the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations during the years 1925–1945.
  3. He was awarded the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physics, the first to be awarded since 1939.

The world when Otto Stern was born

Otto Stern was born in 1888. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Blizzard of 1888 paralyzes US East Coast
  • Technology milestoneKodak box camera — "You press the button, we do the rest"
  • Defining fadKodak camera craze
  • World population~1.48B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
  • U.S. population57.6M

1888 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Otto Stern's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18882026
Population57.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.