The scientific life of Victor Franz (Francis) Hess (June 24, 1883–December 17, 1964)

On the seventh of August 1912, from the measurements upon his seventh balloon ride that had taken him up to an altitude of 5.350 m, Victor Franz (Francis) Hess (1883–1864) discovered the cosmic radiation. His colleagues having continued casting doubts on the existence of such extra-terrestrial impingement for many years, the Austrian scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1936 only. Victor F. Hess’ discovery opened novel fields of research with topics challenging until today. Hess was teaching physics at the Universities of Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and, from 1938 onwards, of Fordham, New York, and all his life long continued being true to ‘his’ topic. Suffering himself of radium burns, Hess pioneered to install the first routine measurements of radium poisoning in the USA.