Adolf Eugen Fick

Adolf Fick
Adolf Fick
	Adolf Eugen Fick (1829-1901)
Born	3 April 1829; Kassel, Germany
Died	21 August 1901; Blankenberge, Flanders
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Marburg
Known for	Contact lens invention; Fick's law of diffusion; Fick Principle; Direct Fick method
	Scientific career
Fields	Physiologist and biophysicist
Institutions	University of Zurich; University of Würzburg
Doctoral advisor	Franz Ludwig Fick
Doctoral students	Johann Jakob Müller
Notes
	He is the son of Franz Ludwig Fick. He is the nephew of Adolph Fick who invented tonometry.

Adolf Eugen Fick (1 April 1829, in Kassel, Germany – 21 August 1901, in Blankenberge, Flanders) was a German physiologist usually credited with the invention of contact lenses. He earned doctorate at Marburg in 1851.

In 1845 he introduced Fick's law of diffusion, which governs the diffusion of a gas across a fluid membrane. In 1870 he was the first to devise a technique for measuring cardiac output, called the Fick Principle. In 1887 he constructed and fitted what was to be considered the first successful model of a contact lens: an afocal scleral contact shell made from heavy brown glass, which he tested first on rabbits, then on himself, and lastly on a small group of volunteers. His idea was advanced independently by several innovators in the years that followed.

Fick managed to double-publish his law of diffusion, as it applied equally to physiology and physics. His work led to the development of the Direct Fick method for measuring Cardiac Output.