Elly Schwab-Agallidis (born Elly Agallidis, Greek: Έλλη Αγαλλίδου, pronounced [ˈeli aɣaˈliðu]; 14 August 1914 – 24 December 2006) was a Greek physicist/physical chemist and one of the first women in Greece to be awarded a PhD in the field.[1] She was the wife of Georg-Maria Schwab, who met her in Munich as the supervisor of the experimental work for her doctoral thesis; the couple then worked together as researchers in the Kanellopoulos Institute after they emigrated in Greece.[1][2] Her most famous work concerned the properties and reactivity of parahydrogen.[1][3]
Elly Schwab-Agallidis | |
|---|---|
Έλλη Αγαλλίδου | |
| Born | Elly Agallidis 14 August 1914 Athens, Greece |
| Died | 24 December 2006 (aged 92) Essen, Germany |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Other names | Elly Schwab |
| Alma mater | University of Athens University of Munich |
| Known for | Reactions of parahydrogen |
| Spouse | Georg-Maria Schwab |
| Children | Andreas Josef Scwhab Maria Schwab Johanna Schwab |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physical chemistry, Solid-state physics |
| Institutions | Kanellopoulos Institute of Chemistry and Agriculture University of Athens |
| Thesis | Ἐπίδρασις ἐλευθέρων ἀτόμων καὶ ῥιζῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ παραϋδρογόνου [a] (1939) |
| Doctoral advisor | Georg-Maria Schwab |
Biography
editElly Agallidis was born in 1914 to a middle class family of Athens; she was the first child of Ioannis Agallidis and Maria-Edith Agallidis (née Zannou).[1] She graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Athens in 1934 and continued with postgraduate studies in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Munich, then under the direction of Heinrich Otto Wieland.[1][3] It was there that she met Georg-Maria Schwab, her future husband, who suggested that she examine parahydrogen and supervised her experimental work.[1][3]
Schwab was banned from teaching in Nazi Germany due to his half-Jewish origin.[2] With the increasing fear of prosecution, he decided in 1930 to emigrate to Elly's homeland, Greece.[1][2] Agallidis and Schwab married in Athens the same year. Schwab-Agallidis was able to find work for both in the chemical laboratory of the Kanellopoulos Institute of Chemistry and Agriculture, where the couple collaborated on various topics of physico-chemical research for the next ten years (1939–1949).[1][2][3] Among those topics Schwab-Agallidis continued her work on the properties of parahydrogen, for which she received her PhD by the Department of Physics of the University of Athens in 1939 and published multiple relevant papers in the following years.[1][3] At the same period she also delivered lectures on Physical Chemistry at the University of Athens.[1]
After a difficult period for the couple during the Axis occupation of Greece and the resumption of their research after the liberation of Greece, the two scientists eventually returned to West Germany when Schwab was offered the Professorship of Physical Chemistry at the University of Munich in 1951.[1][2]
Elly Schwab-Agallidis died in Essen at the age of 92 in 2006.[1]
References
edit- ^ English: Influence of Free Radicals on Parahydrogen
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Elly Schwab-Agallidis". Laboratory of Physical Chemistry (in Greek). University of Athens, Department of Chemistry. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 11 Apr 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "Pressemitteilung / Universität München, Pressereferat den 31 Januar 1969". Open Access LMU (in German). LMU. 1969. Archived from the original on 2014-08-18. Retrieved 10 Apr 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Agallidis, Elly (1939). Influence of Free Radicals on Parahydrogen Ἐπίδρασις ἐλευθέρων ἀτόμων καὶ ῥιζῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ παραϋδρογόνου (PDF) (in Greek). Athens: Chimika Chronika.