This Austrian physicist received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926, together with Carl David Anderson, for their studies on cosmic rays.
In 1910, he began his professional career at the Vienna Physical Institute, where he was introduced to the field of radioactivity.
In the year 1920, he became Extraordinary Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Graz in Austria and between 1921 and 1923, he obtained a permit to work in the United States, where he established himself as director of the research laboratory (created by himself ) of the United States Radio Corporation, in Orange, New Jersey, and as a consulting physicist for the United States Department of Interior Affairs (Bureau of Mines), in Washington D.C.
In 1923, he returned to the University of Graz and, two years later, he was appointed ordinary professor of experimental physics, until, in 1931, he was appointed professor at the University of Innsbruck and director of the newly founded Institute of Radiology.
Hess inaugurated a station to observe and study cosmic rays on the Hafelekar mountain near Innsbruck.
In 1938 he moved to the United States where he was Professor of Physics at Fordham University, obtaining American citizenship in 1944.
