James Franck was a German–American physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom." The Nobel Prize in Physics 1925, announced November 11, 1926. James Franck and Gustav Hertz, “for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom”. James Franck: born 1882, Hamburg, Germany. Gustav Hertz: born 1887, Hamburg, Germany. Wiki link Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).