The Author

Ernst Ising was born in Cologne (Germany) in 1900. After school, he studied physics and mathematics at the universities of Göttingen and Hamburg. In 1922, he began researching ferromagnetism under the guidance of Wilhelm Lenz. This research culminated in his dissertation in 1924. In 1930, he obtained a teaching position at the high school in Strausberg/Berlin. In the same year he married the economist Dr. Johanna Ehmer. The life of the Isings became very complicated when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. Ernst, a Jew, was dismissed from his job as a civil servant. In 1934, he became a teacher and later the headmaster in a boarding school for Jewish students who had been thrown out of public schools. During the pogrom against Jewish population in Germany in 1938, the school was destroyed and Ernst questioned by the Gestapo. In 1939, the Isings fled to Luxembourg. During the Nazi occupation, Ernst earned money as a shepherd and railroad worker. After the liberation by the Allies, the Isings decided to go to America and they arrived in New York in 1946. In 1948, Ernst became Professor of Physics at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He taught there for 28 years, retiring at the age of 76. He died at his home in Peoria in 1998.