German physicist, b. 1850, d. 1918. Braun was educated at the Universities of Marburg and Berlin. After he graduated in 1872, he worked as an assistant at Würzburg University and St. Thomas Gymnasium (grammar school).
In 1876, he was given the title of "Extraordinary Professor of Theoretical Physics" at the University of Marburg. Several similar positions follwed at Strasbourg University, the Technische Hochschule in Karlsruhe, and the University of Tübingen, where he was to build a new Physics Institute. In 1895, he returned to Strasbourg as Principal of the Physics Institute.
Braun's research interests included oscillations of elastic materials, thermodynamics, and electricity. His interest in electricity led to the invention of Braun's electrometer. In 1898, he became interested in wireless telegraphy. His first experiments included trying to transmit signals through water using a high-frquency current. He introduced the closed circuit of oscillation into telegraphy. Braun was one of the first people to send electric signals in a definite direction. He used inclined beam antennae to receive these signals.
He was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics jointly with Guglielmo Marconi
"in recognition of their contributions to the
development of wireless telegraphy"
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Researched on www.nobel.se