Lieselott Herforth

Lieselott Herforth (13 September 1916 in Altenburg – 30 November 2010 in Dresden) was a German physicist and politician. She was a member of the State Council and the People's Chamber of the GDR and she was the first rector of a university in Germany.

Life Born in 1916, the daughter of a writer and publisher, Lieselott Herforth graduated from the Rückert-Oberlyzeum in Berlin-Schöneberg. Beginning in 1936, she studied physics and mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin and worked there as an assistant for physics and mathematics in 1938. She wrote her diploma thesis under supervision of Hans Geiger. In 1943, Herforth worked as an assistant at, among others, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin and at the University of Leipzig. In 1946, she was employed as a physicist in Oberspreewerk Berlin-Oberschöneweide. From 1955 to 1960, Herforth was a research associate at the Institute for Applied Radioactivity in Leipzig. At the same time Herforth worked from 1957 to 1960 as a professor with a teaching assignment for applied radioactivity at the TU Leuna-Merseburg and followed in 1960 a call to TU Dresden, where she taught as a professor in the same field and from 1962 as a professor for the application of radioactive isotopes. From 1965 to 1968 Herforth was the rector of the TU Dresden, making her the first rector at a university in Germany. In the 1955, Herforth was a member of the commission for junior and training issues in the Scientific Council for the peaceful application of nuclear energy that was founded by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

Awards Herforth was appointed full member of the German Academy of Sciences in 1969. In 1971, she was awarded the National Prize of the GDR for science and technology. In 1974, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Chemical Industry, Veszprém, in Hungary. In 1977, she was awarded the Humboldt Medal in Gold. and Gold (1981), the Banner of Labor (1966), and the Distinguished Service Medal of the National People's Army in Gold. She was honored twice as an activist and member of the "Kollektiv der sozialistischen Arbeit".

Selected publications

1948: Die Fluoreszenzanregung organischer Substanzen mit Alphateilchen, schnellen Elektronen und Gammastrahlen (Diss.) 1958: Ultraschall: Grundlagen und Anwendungen in Physik, Technik, Biologie und Medizin 1964: Frauen in Technik und Naturwissenschaften (in: Das Hochschulwesen, 12/1964) 1968: Praktikum der angewandten Radioaktivität 1979: Neutronen-Personendosimetrie 1981: Praktikum der Radioaktivität und der Radiochemie