Heinz Billing facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Heinz Billing
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Heinz Billing in 2012
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| Born | 7 April 1914 |
| Died | 4 January 2017 (aged 102) Garching bei München, Bavaria, Germany
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| Citizenship | Germany |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
| Known for | Prototype laser interferometric gravitational wave detector Data storage device |
| Awards | Konrad Zuse Medal (1987) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics Computer science Experimental Gravitation |
| Institutions | Aerodynamic Test Centre at Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics Max Planck Institute for Physics |
| Doctoral advisor | Walter Gerlach Eduard Rüchardt |
Heinz Billing (born April 7, 1914 – died January 4, 2017) was a German scientist. He was a physicist and a computer scientist. Many people see him as a pioneer in creating computer systems. He also helped build early ways to store computer information. Later in his life, he even built a special machine to detect gravitational waves.
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A Look at Heinz Billing's Life
Heinz Billing was born in a town called Salzwedel in Germany. He studied math and physics at the University of Göttingen. In 1938, when he was 24, he earned his doctorate degree in Munich. During the Second World War, he worked at the Aerodynamics Research Institute in Göttingen.
On October 3, 1943, Heinz married Anneliese Oetker. They had three children together. Heinz lived a very long life. He turned 100 years old in April 2014. He passed away on January 4, 2017, at the age of 102. Interestingly, on the very same day he died, the LIGO project detected its fourth gravitational wave event, called GW170104.
His Work in Computer Science
While working at the Aerodynamic Research Institute in Göttingen, Heinz Billing created something important. He developed a type of early computer memory called a magnetic drum memory. This was a big step for computers.
According to Heinz Billing's own memories, a famous meeting happened in 1947. Two very important computer pioneers, Alan Turing and Konrad Zuse, met in Göttingen. Other researchers were there too, including Billing himself. They talked about computers and their future.
After a short time working in Australia, Billing came back to Germany. In 1951, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Physics. From 1952 to 1961, Heinz Billing led a team that built four digital computers. These were named the G1, G2, G1a, and G3.
He is known for designing Germany's first electronic digital computer that could follow a set of instructions. He also designed Germany's first electronic digital computer that could store its own programs. These were huge achievements for the early days of computing.
Exploring Gravitational Waves
After many years, computers became more common. Factories started making them in large numbers. Because of this, Heinz Billing decided to move on from the computer field. He had been a pioneer in computing for almost 30 years.
In 1972, Billing went back to his first love: physics. He joined the Max Planck Institute at its new location near Munich. Starting in 1972, Heinz Billing became very interested in gravitational physics. He wanted to check if claims made by an American physicist named Joseph Weber were true. Weber said he had detected gravitational waves. However, Billing's experiments showed that Weber's results were likely incorrect.
In 1975, a scientist named Rainer Weiss from MIT suggested using lasers to find gravitational waves. Heinz Billing and his team decided to try this idea. They built a small, 3-meter-long prototype machine. This machine used lasers and mirrors to detect tiny changes in space.
From 1980 onwards, Billing oversaw the building of a larger laser machine. This one had arms that were 30 meters long. The knowledge gained from these early machines was very important. Without Heinz Billing's work, the huge LIGO project, which now detects gravitational waves, might not have started when it did.
Awards and Special Recognition
Heinz Billing received several important awards for his work. In 1987, he was given the Konrad Zuse Medal. This award recognized his invention of the magnetic drum storage. In 2015, he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is a very high honor in Germany.
In 1993, the Max Planck Society created a special award in his honor. It's called the Heinz Billing prize. This prize is given each year for "outstanding contributions to computational science." It comes with 5,000 Euro.
See also
In Spanish: Heinz Billing para niños
