J. Hans D. Jensen

J. Hans D. Jensen died on February 11, 1973 in Heidelberg, Germany.

J. Hans D. Jensen was born on 25 June 1907 in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of a gardener, Karl Jensen and Helene Ohm Jensen.

From 1926 to 1931, he studied physics, mathematics, physical chemistry, and philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and the University of Hamburg.

In 1932, he obtained his doctorate degree under Wilhelm Lenz from the University of Hamburg. In 1936, Jensen completed his Habilitation from the same university.

In 1937 Jensen was appointed a Privatdozent (unpaid lecturer) at the University of Hamburg. The same year, he began working with Paul Harteck, director of the university's physical chemistry department and advisor to the HWA, Army Ordnance Office on explosives.

In 1939, after the launch of military control over the German nuclear energy project—Uranverein (Uranium Club), Jensen joined the project at the initiative of Harteck who was one of the major figures in the Uranverein. Jensen worked on double centrifuges for separation of uranium isotopes.

In 1941 Jensen was named extraordinarius professor of theoretical physics at the the University of Hanover. In 1946 he became an ordinarius professor at the same university.

In 1949 he joined as an ordinarius professor at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. He later received emeritus praecox status there. The same year, Jensen and Maria Goeppert-Mayer independently presented the shell model for the nucleus of an atom.

In 1950, J. Hans D. Jensen co-authored the ‘Über Gaszentrifugen: Anreicherung der Xenon-, Krypton- und der Selen-Isotope nach dem Zentrifugenverfahren’ with Konrad Beyerle, Wilhelm Groth, Paul Harteck.

Jensen’s most celebrated work is his theory of the shell nuclear model. He and Maria Goeppert-Mayer proposed this separately in 1949. The shell nuclear model states that an atomic nucleus is a structure of shells with different radii just like layers of onion and each is filled with neutrons and protons.