Victor Francis Hess (PhD, Nobel)

Dr. Victor Franz Hess, an Austrian physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 for his discovery of cosmic rays, where radiation is emanating from galaxies throughout the universe. Hess relocated to the U.S. in 1938 alongside his Jewish wife to escape Nazi persecution. He was a practicing Roman Catholic and wrote on the relationship between science and religion in his article "My Faith", which concludes as follows: "Real Faith, for a scientist, as for anyone else, is often a matter of bitter struggle. The victory must be won, or the gift must be discovered, by each one in his own soul. It often takes the personal experience of grave danger of death to bring conviction and to prepare the way for Faith in Divine Providence. What is certain is that, when Faith comes, there follows a great serenity of soul and a deep peace in the human heart."