Heinrich Wilhelm Dove

Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (1803 to 1879) was a Prussian physicist and meteorologist, born in Liegnitz. He studied at Breslau and Berlin, became a Privatdozent in 1826 and a professor extraordinarius at Königsberg in 1828, and from 1845 was professor ordinarius at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin, where he was elected rector in 1858 and again in 1871. In 1849 he also became director of the Prussian Meteorological Institute. He published more than 300 papers and is regarded by some as a pioneer of climatology: in 1828 he observed that tropical cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. His physics included the discovery of binaural beats in 1839 and a differential inductor of 1841, the first induction metal detector. He received the Copley Medal in 1853, and the Dove prism in optics is named for him.