Hans Eduard Suess (December 16, 1909 – September 20, 1993)^[1] was anAustrian-bornAmericanphysical chemist andnuclear physicist. He was a grandson of the Austrian geologistEduard Suess.

Suess earned hisPh.D. in chemistry from theUniversity of Vienna in 1935 under the supervision ofPhilipp Gross.^[2] DuringWorld War II, he was part of a team ofGerman scientists studyingnuclear power and was advisor to the production ofheavy water in a Norwegian plant (seeOperation Gunnerside).

After the war, he collaborated on theshell model of theatomic nucleus with future (1963)Nobel Prize winnerHans Jensen.^[3]

In 1950, Suess emigrated to theUnited States. He did research in the field ofcosmochemistry, investigating theabundance of certain elements in meteorites withHarold Urey (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1934) at theUniversity of Chicago. In 1955, Suess was recruited for the faculty ofScripps Institution of Oceanography, and in 1958 he became one of the four founding faculty members of theUniversity of California, San Diego. He remained at UCSD as professor until 1977 and as emeritus professor thereafter.^[3] He established a laboratory at UCSD forcarbon-14 determinations, where he trained students includingEllen R.M. Druffel,^[4] now the Fred Kavli Professor of Earth System Science atUniversity of California, Irvine.^[5]

Suess's most recent research was focused on the distribution ofcarbon-14 andtritium in the oceans and atmosphere. On basis ofradiocarbon analyses of annual growth-rings of trees he contributed to

• the calibration of theradiocarbon dating scale, and
• the study of the magnitude of the dilution of atmospheric radiocarbon by carbon dioxide from fossil fuels burned since the industrial revolution. This dilution is known as theSuess effect (see articles about the anthropogenicgreenhouse effect).

The mineralsuessite, a Fe, Ni-silicide inEnstatit-Chondrites, is named after him.^[6]

On September 20, 1993, Suess died in a La Jolla retirement home.^[7]

Suess was frequently confused—by theUS Postal Service among others—with a contemporary, the famed children's writerDr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), when both men resided inLa Jolla, California. The two names have been posthumously linked as well: both men's personal papers are housed inGeisel Library at theUniversity of California, San Diego.^[8]

• Suess, Hans; Urey, Harold (1956). "Abundances of the Elements".Reviews of Modern Physics.28 (1):53–74.Bibcode:1956RvMP...28...53S.doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.28.53.
• A Biographical Memoir, from the National Academy Press
• A Biographical Memoir, from the National Academy Press
• Genesis Mission page
• Suess-effect
• Murdin, Paul (2001). "Suess, Hans Eduard (1909?)".The Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics.doi:10.1888/0333750888/4039.ISBN 0-333-75088-8.
• Arnold, J. R.; Marti, K.; Wanke, H. (1994). "Hans Suess".Meteoritics.29: 289.Bibcode:1994Metic..29..289A.doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1994.tb00683.x.
• Hans Suess. 2006.doi:10.17226/11522.ISBN 978-0-309-09579-2.
• Robert Jungk inBrighter Than a Thousand Suns (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1958), quotes Suess about the production of heavy water by theVemork plant. From page 110:"... Jomar Brun, a former technical manager of the [...] heavy water works at Rjukan in Norway [...] stated that he had been told by Hans Suess, the German atomic expert employed there, that production [...] could not attain the dimensions important for war production in much less than five years." Jomar Brun fled to Sweden after the occupation by German troops in 1940. Brun's letters (1950–1987), archived inHans Suess Papers:Series 2, Correspondence:b4/f29, contain a discussion of secret war operations and Brun's role in the production of heavy water.
• Hitler's Sunken Secret, a NOVA production airing in November 2005 undertakes a forensics approach to evaluate the heavy water threat.
• Brun, Jomar.Brennpunkt Vemork 1940-1945.ISBN 82-00-06864-1, 119 pages (1985), Universitetsforlaget.
• Arnold, J. R.; Marti, K.; Wanke, H. (1994). "Memorial for Hans E. Suess".Meteoritics.29: 289.Bibcode:1994Metic..29..289A.doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1994.tb00683.x.

• 1909 births
• 1993 deaths
• Austrian nuclear physicists
• Austrian emigrants to the United States
• Nuclear program of Nazi Germany
• Austrian physical chemists
• American physical chemists
• American nuclear physicists
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Scientists from Vienna
• Recipients of the V. M. Goldschmidt Award
• 20th-century American chemists

• Use mdy dates from November 2020
• Articles with hCards