physics

Peter Schattschneider

Peter Schattschneider is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Schattschneider rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Schattschneider (born 1950 in Vienna) is an Austrian physicist and science-fiction writer, a retired professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics and a staff member of the USTEM special unit of the Vienna University of Technology. His research focuses on electron microscopy, specifically on electron energy loss spectroscopy and the inelastic interactions between electrons and matter.

Key takeaways

Peter Schattschneider belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Schattschneider to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Schattschneider from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter Schattschneider (born 1950 in Vienna) is an Austrian physicist and science-fiction writer, a retired professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics and a staff member of the USTEM special unit of the Vienna University of Technology. His research focuses on electron microscopy, specifically on electron energy loss spectroscopy and the inelastic interactions between electrons and matter. He is also interested in the history of physics, the science in science fiction, and the role of science in society. His group was responsible for the discovery of electron magnetic circular dichroism in 2006.

Life Peter Schattschneider completed his diploma degree in Physics in 1973 at the Vienna University of Technology, with a thesis entitled X-ray diffusion profiles in thin layers (German: Röntgenographische Bestimmung von Diffusionsprofilen in dünnen Schichten). In 1976 he successfully defended his PhD thesis on The determination of lattice constants of binary alloys from X-ray diffraction profiles (German: Die Ermittlung von Gitterkonstantenspektren binärer Legierungen aus Röntgenbeugungsprofilen) at the same university. From 1974 to 1977 he was also enrolled at the University of Vienna where he obtained a mag. rer. nat. degree in the college teaching of Physics and Mathematics. After working for a few years on air- and spaceborn sensors in a private engineering enterprise, he returned to his alma mater in 1980 as an assistant in the Institute for Applied and Technical Physics, where he became Assistant Professor in 1988. In 1978 he published his first Science Fiction story (Rechtsbrecher) and afterwards has published other stories in Anthologies and Magazines. From 1992 to 1993, he worked at the CNRS (Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique) in Paris. Since 1995 he has been an invited professor at the École Centrale Paris. From 2000 to 2006 he was the head of the newly established University Service for Transmission Electron Microscopy at the Vienna University of Technology. Although he officially retired in 2015, he is still an active researcher. In October 2016 he received a decoration from the Vienna University of Technology for "his research on electron energy loss spectroscopy and the development of the theoretical foundations in the fields of ELNES, EMCD and most recently electron vortex beams". In 2024, he experimentally simulated the Terrell effect for the first time.

Awards 1981: Theodor Körner Prize for his work on EELS. 1992: Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for the short story Pflegeleicht 1995: Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for the short story Brief aus dem Jenseits

Works

As author Novels Singularitäten. Ein Episodenroman im Umfeld schwarzer Löcher. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/M. 1984, ISBN 3-518-37521-0. Hell Fever – Höllische Spiele. Science-Fiction novel. Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock. 2019, ISBN 978-3-356-02276-6. The Exodus Incident. Science-Fiction novel. Springer. 2021, ISBN 978-3-030-70018-8 Short stories Zeitstopp. Science-Fiction-Geschichten (Phantastische Bibliothek; vol. 76). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/M. 1982, ISBN 3-518-37319-6. Selbstgespräch mit Protoplasma. Erzählungen aus der Zukunft. Verlag im Waldgut, Frauenfeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-03-740384-6 (with an epilogue by Franz Rottensteiner). Non-fiction books Fundamentals of inelastic electron scattering. Springer, Wien 1986, ISBN 3-211-81937-1.

As editor Science Fiction - Werkzeug oder Sensor einer technisierten Welt? Vortragsreihe. EDFC, Passau 1995 (with Karlheinz Steinmüller) Linear and chiral dichroism in the electron microscope. Pan Stanford, Singapore 2012, ISBN 9789814267489

Literature Franz Rottensteiner: Peter Schattschneider. Das Spiel mit der Wirklichkeit, in: Franz Rottensteiner: Im Labor der Visionen. Anmerkungen zur phantastischen Literatur. 19 Aufsätze und Vorträge aus den Jahren 2000–2012, Verlag Dieter van Reeken, Lüneburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-940679-72-7, p. 189–198. Günter Zettl: Interview mit Peter Schattschneider, in: Science Fiction Times, 26th year, 1984, issue 9, p. 5–8.

References

External links Literature by and about Peter Schattschneider in the German National Library catalogue Peter Schattschneider at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Peter Schattschneider webpage at USTEM

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Schattschneider

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Schattschneider claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Schattschneider before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Schattschneider ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Schattschneider

In research: Peter Schattschneider appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Schattschneider in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Schattschneider is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, 20th-century Austrian physicists, Austrian male short story writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Schattschneider outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Schattschneider in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Schattschneider means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Schattschneider out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Schattschneider in simple terms?

Why does Peter Schattschneider matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Schattschneider?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Schattschneider.