Walther Bothe was a prominent German physicist during the "Golden Age of Physics," circa 1900-1930. He was one of the few graduate students to study with physicist Max Planck in Berlin and began his professional career with Hans Geiger, inventor of the Geiger counter. During the 1920s he developed the coincidence counting technique for tracking the collisions between electrons and electromagnetic quanta, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954. Bothe also contributed many ideas to nuclear reaction theory.

Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was born in Oranienburg, Germany, on January 8, 1891, the son of Fritz and Charlotte Hartung Bothe. His father was a merchant. At age 23, Bothe received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin. His dissertation concerned the interactions between light and molecules as they related to the reflection, refraction, dispersion, and absorption of light. After graduation he began work at the Physical-Technical Institute under...