Karl Ludwig Felix Machatschki (22 September 1895 – 17 February 1970) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

. He was born in

Arnfels Arnfels ( Slovene: ''Arnež'') is a municipality in the district of Leibnitz in Styria, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern ...

(near

Leibnitz Leibnitz (Slovenian: ''Lipnica'') is a city in the Austrian state of Styria and on 1 Jan. 2017 had a population of 12,176. It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur and Sulm rivers. The town is the capital of the Leibni ...

) in

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He studied at the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

, obtaining his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1925; in 1927 he joined the group of

Victor Goldschmidt Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (27 January 1888 in Zürich – 20 March 1947 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mineralogist considered (together with Vladimir Vernadsky) to be the founder of modern geochemistry and crystal chemistry, developer of the Goldsch ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

for one year. In 1930 he was appointed as a professor at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. He changed university twice, first in 1941 to the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

and finally in 1944 to the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

.Machatschki, Felix Karl Ludwig
Austria-Forum In 1928 he published ''Zur Frage der Struktur und Konstitution der Feldspäte'', a paper in which he develops the concept of the atomic structure of

silicates In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is al ...

and formulates the construction principle of

feldspars Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...

. In 1946 he published ''Grundlagen der allgemeinen Mineralogie und Kristallchemie'' ("Fundamentals of general mineralogy and crystal chemistry"). In 1961, Machatschki was awarded the

Austrian Medal for Science and Art The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system. History The "Austrian D ...

. The "Felix-Machatschki-Preis" is an award given by the Österreichische Mineralogische Gesellschaft in recognition of outstanding international scientific work in the field of mineralogy. The mineral machatschkiite commemorates his name.Machatschkiite Mineral Data
Webmineral.com

Published works

* ''Grundlagen der allgemeinen Mineralogie und Kristallchemie'', 1946 – Fundamentals of general mineralogy and crystal chemistry. * ''Vorräte und Verteilung der mineralischen Rohstoffe'', 1948 – Inventories and the distribution of mineral resources. * ''Spezielle Mineralogie auf geochemischer Grundlage'', 1953 – Special mineralogy on a geochemical basis. He was also the author of 140 individual articles in scientific journals.

References

External links

* Source of this translation 1895 births 1970 deaths Austrian chemists Austrian mineralogists University of Graz alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich People from Leibnitz District Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art {{chemist-stub