Otto Kratky

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Otto Kratky (born March 9, 1902 in Vienna , † February 11, 1995 in Graz ) was an Austrian physical chemist .

Life

Otto Kratky was born the son of the painter Rudolf Kratky. After graduating from high school, he studied chemistry at the Technical University in Vienna and completed his studies in 1929 with a doctorate. After completing his university education, he became an assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin-Dahlem in 1928 , a position he held until 1933. He then worked as a university lecturer at the University of Vienna until he returned to the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin in 1937 as a department head. From 1940 to 1943 he was a permanent professor at the German Technical University in Prague and from 1943 to 1945 head of the Institute for Physical Chemistry there.

In 1946 he was appointed full professor at the University of Graz , where he taught until his retirement in 1972. From 1956 to 1957 he was Dean of the Philosophical Faculty and Rector there . His scientific focus was on the areas of the molecular structure of cell structures, about which he published a fundamental study in 1951, and determination of the size and shape of biologically important macromolecules. In addition, he studied colloidal particles by scattering X-rays. The measuring method developed by Kratky , which uses small-angle scattering to determine the shapes of macromolecules that cannot be crystallized, became the standard for measurement. In addition, the scientist invented a density measurement method based on the flexural oscillator principle. The process was patented in 1967 and is still the most widely used measuring method for determining the density of liquids.

From 1965 to 1966 he was chairman of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors . After his retirement, Kratky was head of the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 1972 to 1982 .

He was a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1957), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1959), the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen (1977) and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1978).

Scientific publications

  • About the rubber effect in hydrate cellulose . Steinkopf, Dresden 1944
  • The macromolecule, a focal point of modern biological and biochemical research . Kienreich, Graz 1957
  • The world of neglected dimensions and the small-angle scattering of X-rays and neutrons on biological macromolecules . Barth, Leipzig 1983.

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Who is who in Austria , red series Verlag GmbH, Wörthsee near Munich 1983, page 395
  2. ↑ a b Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1992, page 1946
  3. ^ Otto Kratky , University of Graz, archive.
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 139.
personal data
SURNAME Kratky, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian physical chemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1995
Place of death Graz