Education Paul Karl Ludwig Drude was born on 12 July 1863 in
Braunschweig. He began his studies in mathematics at the
University of Göttingen, but later changed his major to physics. In 1887, he received his
Ph.D. under
Woldemar Voigt with a thesis on the
reflection and
diffraction of light in crystals. Drude graduated the year
Heinrich Hertz began publishing his findings from his experiments on the
electromagnetic theories of
James Clerk Maxwell, thus Drude began his career at the time Maxwell's theories were being introduced into Germany.
Career and research In 1894, Drude became
professor extraordinarius at the
University of Leipzig. The same year, he married Emilie Regelsberger, with whom he had 4 children. His first experiments were the determination of the
optical constants of various solids, measured to unprecedented levels of accuracy. He then worked to derive relationships between the optical and electrical constants and the physical structure of
substances. In 1894, he was responsible for introducing the symbol
c for the
speed of light in a perfect
vacuum. published in 1900, brought together the formerly distinct subjects of
electricity and
optics, which was cited by Drude as an "epoch-making advance in natural science". In 1900, Drude became the editor of
Annalen der Physik, the most respected physics journal at that time. The same year, he developed a powerful model to explain the thermal, electrical, and optical properties of matter; this is known as the
Drude model. In 1901, he was appointed Professor Ordinarius of Physics at the
University of Giessen. In 1905, Drude became Director of the Physics Institute at the
University of Berlin. In 1906, at the height of his career, he became a Member of the
Prussian Academy of Sciences. A few days after his inauguration lecture, for inexplicable reasons, he committed suicide. He was survived by his wife and children. == Honors ==