Theodor des Coudres

Who was Theodor des Coudres?

Theodor des Coudres was a German physicist.

Theodor des Coudres was the son of Julius des Coudres and his wife Anna Henrietta Rosenstock. His younger brother, Richard des Coudres, later became president of the "Mitteldeutschen Sängerbundes"; his uncle on the paternal side was the painter Ludwig des Coudres.

In 1881 des Coudres began to study natural science and medicine at the University of Geneva and later in Leipzig and Munich. At the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1887, he successfully finished his study with a thesis on the optical constants of mercury with Professor Hermann von Helmholtz. 1889 he was employed at the University of Leipzig as an assistant of Professor Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann. His research led him to his Habilitation in 1891. 1895 he was appointed to the University of Goettingen at the chair for "applied electricity". In 1901 he went to the University of Würzburg and took over the chair for theoretical physics as an extraordinary professor. In 1903 he became the successor of Professor Ludwig Boltzmann at the University of Leipzig, where he worked until the end of his life.