{{Short description|German physicist}} {{For|the merchant and landowner|George Pozer}}

'''Georg Pfotzer''' (29 November 1909 – 24 July 1981) was a German physicist.

He was a student of Erich Regener in the 1930s and worked with Regener to investigate cosmic rays by using balloons to carry scientific instruments such as Geiger counters to the upper atmosphere.<ref name="regener">[http://www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/5/175/2014/hgss-5-175-2014.pdf Erich Regener and the ionisation maximum of the atmosphere]</ref> The terms ''Pfotzer curve'' and ''Pfotzer maximum'', relating to the distribution of charged particles in the atmosphere resulting from cosmic rays, are named after him.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Cosmic Rays and Particle Physics|author=Gaisser, T.K.|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521339315|url=https://archive.org/details/cosmicrayspartic0000gais|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/cosmicrayspartic0000gais/page/44 44]|accessdate=2017-01-16}}</ref><ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=Cosmic Rays at Earth: Researcher's Reference Manual and Data Book|author=Grieder, P.K.F.|date=2001|publisher=Elsevier Science Limited|isbn=9780444507105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MwwRhQ7qEAsC&pg=PA20|page=20|accessdate=2017-01-16}}</ref><ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=The Birth of Particle Physics|author1=Brown, L.M.|author2=Hoddeson, L.|date=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521338370|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8w8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA90|page=90|accessdate=2017-01-16}}</ref> It has been suggested that this is misleading, as Regener was the principal investigator, but he was persecuted and forced to resign during the Nazi era as his wife was of Jewish ancestry.<ref name="regener"/>

He was director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research between 1965 and 1977.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A Contribution to the Morphology of X-ray Bursts in the Auroral Zone Creator|author= Pfotzer, G. |author2=Ehmert, A. |author3=Erbe, H. |author4=Keppler, E. |author5=Hultqvist, B. |author6=Ortner, J. |date= 1962| volume= 67|pages=575–585|journal=J. Geophys. Res.|doi=10.1029/JZ067i002p00575|bibcode=1962JGR....67..575P|issue=2}}</ref>

==External links== * [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/phbl.19810371110/pdf Helmut Rosenbauer: ''Nachruf für Professor Dr.-Ing. Georg Pfotzer (29. 11. 1909 - 24. 7. 1981)''] in Physikalische Blätter

==Publications== * Regener, E. and Pfotzer, G.: Messungen der Ultrastrahlung in der oberen Atmosphäre mit dem Zählrohr (in German), Phys. Zeit. 35, 779–784, 1934. * Regener E. and Pfotzer, G.: Intensity of the Cosmic Ultra-Radiation in the Stratosphere with the Tube-Counter, Nature, 134, 325–325, 1935 * {{cite journal | quote = | last = Regener | first = Erich |author2=Georg Pfotzer |date=November 1935 | title = Vertical Intensity of Cosmic Rays by Threefold Coincidences in the Stratosphere | journal = Nature | volume = 136 | pages = 718–719 | doi = 10.1038/136718a0 |bibcode = 1935Natur.136..718R | issue=3444| s2cid = 4087956 }}

* {{cite book | last= Pfotzer | first= Georg | authorlink= | editor= Yataro Sekido and Harry Elliot | title = Early History of Cosmic Ray Studies | series=Astrophysics and Space Science Library | volume= 118 | year= 1985 | publisher= D. Riedel Publishing Company |location= Dordrecht, Holland | chapter = Erich Regener's Cosmic Ray Work in Stuttgart and Related Subjects }}

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfotzer, Georg}} Category:20th-century German physicists Category:1909 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Cosmic ray physicists Category:Max Planck Institute directors