Heinrich Gustav Magnus (2.05.1802 - 4.04.1870) was a German physicist and chemist and a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1840). He was born in Berlin. He graduated from the University of Berlin (1827) and continued his studies in Stockholm under J. Berzelius and in Paris under P. Dulong, L. Thénard and J. Gay-Lussac. From 1831 he worked at the University of Berlin (professor from 1834 and rector in 1861-62).
His research in physics was in the field of mechanics, hydrodynamics, heat, optics, magnetism, electrolysis and thermoelectricity. He discovered (1852) the transverse force that arises on a body rotating in a stream of liquid or gas flowing past it (the Magnus effect). He determined the thermal expansion coefficients of gases (1842) and the vapour pressure of various liquids (1843), and studied (1854) the absorption of heat rays by gases. He carried out (1848) experiments comparing the emissive powers of various bodies, and was the first to prove experimentally (1860) the thermal conductivity of hydrogen. He studied the absorption of gases by blood.
In the early 1840s he set up his own physics laboratory for the research work of trainees, one of the first physics laboratories, and organised (1843) the first physics colloquium. Out of the laboratory and the circle of scientists who gathered round Magnus there arose in 1845 the Berlin Physical Society. He created the scientific journal “Fortschritte der Physik” (the first issue appeared in 1847). He was also one of the founders of the German Chemical Society (1868). Among Magnus's pupils were H. Helmholtz, R. Clausius, A. Kundt, G. Quincke, J. Gibbs, G. Wiedemann, E. Siemens, J. Tyndall, A. G. Stoletov, A. Krönig and others.