LADE, MAX VON (1879– ), German physicist, was born Oct. 9, 1879, at Pfaffendorf near Coblenz. He attended the universities of Strasbourg, GOttingen and Munich, and became an assistant in the University of Berlin, and later in Munich, being subsequently called to the University of Zurich as pro fessor. From here he went to the newly formed University of Frankfurt (on the Main), finally proceeding to Berlin University as a director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics. He specialized in theoretical physics, and is a champion of the modern school of Einstein's theory of relativity. He also devoted his attention to the quantum theory, to the Compton-effect (altera tion of the frequency of Röntgen rays), to Bohr's atomic model, to the "Einstein-Bohr equation" and the disintegration of atoms. In 1914 he was awarded the Nobel prize for physics. Besides his work for various scientific publications, he also writes for the daily Press.
He was the first to suggest the use of a crystal to act as a "grating" for the diffraction of X-rays. He showed that if a pencil of X-rays passed through a crystal diffraction would take place and a pattern formed on a photographic plate placed at right angles to the direction of the pencil. This was verified
experimentally in 1912 by Friedrich and Knipping, who worked under the direction of von Laue, and was the starting point of much subsequent work on X-rays and crystal structure.
Since 1910 he has published the following books: Ueber e. Versuch 1. Optik d. bewegten Korper (1911) ; Die Beugungserscheinungen an vielen unregelmdssig verteilten Teilchen (1915) ; Ueber d. Moglichkeit newer Versuche an Gliihelektroden (1919) ; Die Relativitiitstheorie (1919) ; Ueber d. Auffindung d. Röntgen-strahlinterferenzen (192o) ; Das physikalische Weltbild (1921) ; Die Bedeutung d. Nullkegels in d. allgemeinen Relativitdtstheorie (1922) ; Die Losungen d. Feldgleich ungen d. Schwere v. Schwarzschild (1923) ; Zur Theorie d. v. gliihenden Metallen ausgesandten positiven lonen and Elektronen (1924) ; and with Dr. W. Gordon, Ein Verfahren z. Bestimmung d. Wiirmeleit fiihigkeit bei Gliihtemperaturen (1922).