Franz Ernst Neumann

Franz Ernst Neumann (1798 to 1895) was a German mineralogist and physicist whose work ran deep into mathematical physics. Born at Joachimsthal in Brandenburg, he fought as a volunteer in 1815, studied at Berlin and then spent his career at the University of Königsberg, where he became professor of mineralogy and physics. He devised the first formulas for inductance, formulated a law for the molecular heat of compounds, and in 1845 introduced the magnetic vector potential, giving the first mathematical treatment of Faraday's law of induction. With Carl Gustav Jacobi he founded the Mathematisch-physikalisches Seminar in 1834, whose exercises in exact experimental physics trained students such as Gustav Robert Kirchhoff. He retired in 1876 and died at Königsberg aged 96.