Victor F. Hess

Today, Victor F. Hess is best known for his discovery of cosmic rays in 1911. Originally, however, there was considerable uncertainty about the exact nature of the radiation he had detected. It wasn't until 1936, when further research by Hess and others (e.g. Robert Millikan who coined the term cosmic rays) had confirmed the extraterrestrial origins of the radiation, that Hess was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Other cosmic ray studies by Hess involved their biological effects, their seasonal variation and the influence of magnetic disturbances on their intensity. However, for most of his career, Hess studied the medical uses of radium and the nature and diagnosis of radium poisoning. Between the years 1945 to 1965, Hess measured the radium body burdens of thousands of radium workers. Many of these measurements utilized extremely sensitive techniques developed by Hess at Fordham University. As a footnote, it was during WW I that Hess was the first to utilize Geiger counters for the detection of gamma rays.

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