Editing Gernot Zippe

{{Short description|Austrian mechanical engineer (1917–2008)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Gernot Zippe
| honorific_suffix  = 
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| birth_date        =November 1917
| birth_place       =[[Varnsdorf|Warnsdorf]], [[Austria-Hungary]]<br>{{small|(Present day, [[Varnsdorf]] in [[Ústí nad Labem Region]], [[Czech Republic]])}} 
| death_date        ={{death-date and age|7 May 2008|November 1917}}
| death_place       = [[Bad Tölz]], [[Bavaria]], Germany
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| citizenship       ={{AUT}}
| nationality       = [[German Bohemian|German]]
| fields            = [[Mechanical engineering]] 
| workplaces        = [[Luftwaffe]]<br>[[Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt]]<br>[[Tomsk 7|Tomsk-7]]<br>[[University of Virginia]]<br>[[Urenco Group]]
| patrons           = 
| education         = 
| alma_mater        = [[University of Vienna]] 
| thesis1_title     = Varies on topics of mechanical engineering 
| thesis2_title     = Potential of Short bowl gas centrifuge for the enrichment of U-235 Isotope as compared to published gaseous diffusion
| thesis1_url       =  
| thesis2_url        =https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nuclear_Science_Abstracts/pxMQAKRi-sUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=gernot+zippe+thesis&pg=PA1767&printsec=frontcover
| thesis1_year      = 1939
| thesis2_year      = 1960
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| known_for         =[[Zippe-type centrifuge]]<br>[[Soviet atomic bomb project|Soviet program of nuclear weapons]]
| awards            =[[File:Wilhelm Exner Medal (cropped).jpg|10px]] [[Wilhelm Exner Medal]] (1990)
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'''Gernot Zippe''' (November 1917 – 7 May 2008) was an [[Austria]]n [[mechanical engineer]] and a [[nuclear physics|nuclear physicist]] of [[Austrian German|German origin]] who is widely credited with leading the team which developed the [[Zippe-type centrifuge]]– a centrifuge machine for the [[Enriched uranium|enrichment]] and collection of [[uranium-235]], during his time in the former [[Soviet atomic bomb project|Soviet program of nuclear weapons]].{{rp|47}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The Barnes Review |date=2008 |publisher=TBR Company |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Barnes_Review/4gALAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=gernot+zippe+born&dq=gernot+zippe+born&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref>

==Biography==

Zippe was born in [[Varnsdorf|Warnsdorf]] which was then part of the [[Austria-Hungary]] in November 1917.{{rp|54–55}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014">{{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Jeremy |title=Nuclear Iran |date=14 October 2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-74456-1 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nuclear_Iran/DbCoBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=zippe+born+1917&pg=PA55&printsec=frontcover |access-date=24 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref> The Zippe family later moved to [[Vienna]] which allowed him to attend the [[University of Vienna]] and earned his [[Doctor of Philosophy|doctorate]] in mechanical engineering in 1939.{{rp|54–55}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/> Zippe had earlier interests in [[aeronautical engineering]] and was a civilian flight instructor in the German [[Luftwaffe]]; while he also filled a role as a researcher on radar and [[Propeller (aeronautics)|propellers]].{{rp|54–55}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/>

===In Russia===
During the [[World War II]], Zippe was captured by the [[Red Army]] and held in [[Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union|Soviet custody]] in Prague until 1946 when the Soviet intelligence, the  [[Narodny Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del|NKVD]], learned of his technical background and moved him to [[Russia]] to work on the [[isotope separation]] for the feasibility of the weapon-grade uranium.{{rp|55|58}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/zippe.pdf| title=The problem of Uranium Isotope Separation by Means of Ultracentrifuge in the USSR| accessdate=2010-04-04| publisher= [[Central Intelligence Agency]]| date=1957-10-08}}</ref> Zippe who had never worked on a centrifuge before took over the project but he worked [[Max Steenbeck]] on the feasibility of the machine with the provided Russian intelligence on the works of American [[Jesse Beams]] from the [[Manhattan Project]].{{rp|59}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/> The project was carried out at the Institute A in Sukhumi and was being overseen by German physicist, [[Manfred von Ardenne]], and directed by another German scientist [[Max Steenbeck]], whose theoretical achievements Zippe used to successful deployment in 1950.{{rp|59}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/>

In 1952, Zippe was transferred to [[Saint Petersburg]] to continue his work on the [[Thermal efficiency|efficiency]] with the Russian scientists, which he stayed until 1954.{{rp|60–61}}<ref name="Harvard University Press, Bernstein, 2014"/> It was an standard practice by the captured German scientists to quarantine if they had work on the [[Soviet atomic bomb project|Soviet program of nuclear weapons]], which Zippe did while being interned in transition camp in [[Kyiv]].{{rp|64}}

===In Germany===

In 1956, Zippe was notified by the [[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet administration]] in [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] of his release, and he decided to settle in [[West Germany|Germany]] as opposed to [[Austria]].{{rp|64}} In 1957, Zippe attended the conference on centrifuge research in [[Amsterdam]], he realized the rest of the world was far behind what his team had been able to achieve.{{rp|64}} During this time, Zippe was able to found an employment with [[AMOLF]] as a [[Engineering consulting|consultant]] on centrifuge technology.{{rp|65}} In 1965, Zippe left AMOLF to join the [[Evonik Industries|Duggas AG]] (now [[Trade name]]: Evonik Industries) as a consultant until 1969 when he decided to join the consultant staff of the [[Urenco Group]] until his retirement in 1990.{{rp|65}}

It was the Dutch physicist {{ill|Jacob Kistemaker|nl|Jacob_Kistemaker|vertical-align=sup}} who filed and applied for the first patent in the European and U.S. patents authorities as a functional gas-ultracentrifuge developed at AMOLF, which he credited after Zippe: [[Zippe-type centrifuge|Zippe-type]].<ref name="Unintended Consequences" />

===In the United States===

In 1960, Zippe traveled to the [[United States]] on the sponsorship of the [[University of Virginia]], facilitated by [[Jesse Beams]], where he did an unclassified postdoctoral research on the centrifuge technology.{{rp|4369}}<ref name="R.R. Bowker, 1980">{{cite book |title=Books in Series: Original, Reprinted, In-print, and Out-of-print Books, Published Or Distributed in the U.S. in Popular, Scholarly, and Professional Series |date=1980 |publisher=R.R. Bowker |isbn=978-0-8352-1314-1 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Books_in_Series/d_kaAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=gernot+zippe+born+1917&dq=gernot+zippe+born+1917&printsec=frontcover |access-date=24 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kok |first1=Kenneth D. |title=Nuclear Engineering Handbook |date=3 October 2016 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-315-35630-3 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nuclear_Engineering_Handbook/ap-KDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=gernot+zippe+august+1960&pg=PT507&printsec=frontcover |access-date=24 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref> In spite of his notes confiscated by the Soviet government, Zippe was able to re-create the centrifuge machine and published a research thesis on the development and efficiency of the gas centrifuge at the University of Virginia in the United States.<ref name="slender"/>{{rp|1767}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Nuclear Science Abstracts |date=1960 |publisher=Oak Ridge Directed Operations, Technical Information Division |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nuclear_Science_Abstracts/pxMQAKRi-sUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=gernot+zippe+thesis&pg=PA1767&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref>

Impressed by his work, the United States government tried to recruit him for an on-going centrifuge program but he was restricted from gaining the classified information on the United States' nuclear weapons program; he refused and returned to work with German firms.<ref name="slender"/> Following his return to Germany, the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] awarded contract works to its private firms to start work on the gas centrifuge, and marked his technical reports as classified documents on 1 August 1960.<ref name="slender"/>

==Personal interests and reputation ==
While working as consultant in the Urenco Group in Amsterdam, he was able to improve the efficiency of the gas centrifuge. He enjoyed flying and flew planes until he was 80 years old.<ref name="slender"/> Zippe passed away in [[Bad Tölz]], [[Bavaria]], Germany, on 7 May 2008, aged 90.<ref name="Unintended Consequences">{{cite web |title=Unintended Consequences |url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814596589_0010 |website=A Chorus of Bells and Other Scientific Inquiries |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |access-date=24 December 2024 |pages=159–166 |doi=10.1142/9789814596589_0010 |date=4 February 2014}}</ref>

From 2006–08, Zippe was a subject of interests in European political media which noted that his invention made it cheaper to produce fuel for [[nuclear reactor]]s but also to build [[nuclear weapon]]s, which increased the risk of [[nuclear proliferation]].<ref name="slender"/> When asked if he has any regrets, he responded, "With a kitchen knife you can peel a potato or kill your neighbor, it's up to governments to use the centrifuge for the benefit of mankind."<ref name="slender">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20040323tuesday.html| title=Slender and Elegant, It Fuels the Bomb| accessdate=2016-05-23| work= [[New York Times]]| date=2004-03-23}}</ref>

Although, the United States and the European media credited Gernot Zippe of being the innovator of the machine, the Russian sources, however, disputed the account of Soviet centrifuge development given by Gernot Zippe.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004">Oleg Bukharin, Oleg. [http://www.partnershipforglobalsecurity-archive.org/Documents/bukharinrussianenrichmentcomplexjan2004.pdf Russia’s Gaseous Centrifuge Technology and Uranium Enrichment Complex] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111170013/http://www.partnershipforglobalsecurity-archive.org/Documents/bukharinrussianenrichmentcomplexjan2004.pdf |date=January 11, 2014 }} 2004.</ref> The Russians credited [[Max Steenbeck]], as the German scientist in charge of the German part of the Soviet centrifuge effort, [[Isaac Kikoin]] and Evgeni Kamenev with originating different valuable aspects of the design.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004"/>

The Russian accounts stated that Zippe was engaged in building prototypes for the project for two years from 1953 but, since the centrifuge project was with the [[Classified information in Russia|"Top Secret"]] designation, the Russians did not challenge any of Zippe's claims at that time.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004"/>

==Awards==
*[[Wilhelm Exner Medal]] (1990).<ref>Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.</ref>

==Other==
In Hebrew, the name "Gernot Zippe" (גרנוט ציפה) is an [[anagram]] of the word "Centrifuge" (צנטריפוגה).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/zippetype.shtml The Zippe Type – The Poor Man's Bomb], [[BBC Radio 4]], 19 May 2004
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041227180006/http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=76&storyCode=2024442 Tracking the technology], [[Nuclear Engineering International]], 31 August 2004
* [http://www.electricityforum.com/news/mar04/centrifuge.html Slender and Elegant, It Fuels the Bomb], ''[[New York Times]]'', March 23, 2004
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035404/http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/4289.html Gernot Zippe]
{{Soviet Atomic Bomb Project}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zippe, Gernot}}
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:People from Varnsdorf]]
[[Category:Austrian people of German Bohemian descent]]
[[Category:German Bohemian people]]
[[Category:University of Vienna alumni]]
[[Category:Austrian mechanical engineers]]
[[Category:Luftwaffe personnel]]
[[Category:German flight instructors]]
[[Category:Austrian people of World War II]]
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian engineers]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union people]]
[[Category:Austrian nuclear physicists]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:University of Virginia people]]
[[Category:Nuclear proliferation]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Germany]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Switzerland]]
[[Category:21st-century Austrian engineers]]
[[Category:German aviators]]