List of Austrian inventors and discoverers
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__NOTOC__ This is a list of Austrian inventors and discoverers. The following list comprises people from Austria, and also people of predominantly Austrian heritage, in alphabetical order of the surname.


A

* Wilhelm Altekruse, inventor of Altekruse Puzzle * Carl Auer von Welsbach, work on rare-earth elements, which led to the development of the flint used in modern lighters, the gas mantle which brought light to the streets of Europe in the late 19th century, and the development of the metal filament
light bulb An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...
.


B

*
Georg Joseph Beer Georg Joseph Beer (23 December 1763 – 11 April 1821) was an Austrian ophthalmologist. He is credited with introducing a flap operation for treatment of cataracts (Beer's operation), as well as popularizing the instrument used to perform the su ...
, introducing a flap operation for treatment of cataracts ( Beer's operation), as well as popularizing the instrument used to perform the surgery (Beer's knife). *
Günther Burstyn Gunther Adolf Burstyn (6 July 1879 in Bad Aussee, Steiermark – 15 April 1945 in Korneuburg, Lower Austria) was an inventor, technician, and officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army. He is best known for his ''Motorgeschütz'', the first detailed ...
, co-inventor of the tank (independent from him William Tritton and Walter Gordon Wilson)


C

* Carl Cori (Nobel Prize), co-discovered
Cori cycle The Cori cycle (also known as the lactic acid cycle), named after its discoverers, Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Cori, is a metabolic pathway in which lactate, produced by anaerobic glycolysis in muscles, is transported to the liver and converte ...
. * Gerty Cori (Nobel Prize), co-discovered Cori cycle.


D

*
Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Middlebrook, Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is b ...
, inventor of
birth control pills Oral contraceptives, abbreviated OCPs, also known as birth control pills, are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control. Female Two types of female oral contraceptive pill, taken once per day, are widely available: * The combin ...
* Christian Doppler, discoverer of the
Doppler effect The Doppler effect or Doppler shift (or simply Doppler, when in context) is the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who d ...


E

* Paul Eisler, inventor of the
printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...
.


F

*
Otto Frenzl Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...
: aeronautical pioneer, developed the
area rule The Whitcomb area rule, named after NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb and also called the transonic area rule, is a design procedure used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic speeds which occur between about Mach 0.75 and 1.2. For supersonic ...
in 1943, a design technique for airfoils used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic and supersonic speeds. Later it was independently developed again by
Richard T. Whitcomb Richard Travis Whitcomb (February 21, 1921 – October 13, 2009) was an American aeronautical engineer who was noted for his contributions to the science of aerodynamics. Biography Whitcomb was born in Evanston, Illinois. His father, who had ...
in 1952. * Sigmund Freud: neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis * Karl von Frisch: (Nobel Prize), one of the founders of modern ethology, studies on waggle dance * Paul Fürst: inventor of the
Mozartkugel A (; English: "Mozart ball"; ) is a small, round sugar confection made of pistachio, marzipan and nougat that is covered with dark chocolate. It was originally known as , created in 1890 by Salzburg confectioner Paul Fürst (1856–1941) and n ...


G

* David Gestetner, inventor of the Gestetner
stencil duplicator A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...
. * Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen, inventor of the
Giesl ejector A Giesl ejector is a suction draught system for steam locomotives that works on the same principle as a feedwater injector. This ejector (German: ''Ejektor'', ''Flachschornstein'' or ''Quetschesse'') was invented in 1951 by the Austrian engineer ...


H

* Friedrich Hayek (Nobel Prize), pioneering work in the theory of money and
economic fluctuations Business cycles are intervals of expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are measured by examini ...
. * Victor Francis Hess (Nobel Prize), discovered cosmic ray. *
Ingeborg Hochmair Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer (born 1953) is an Austrian electrical engineer and the CEO and CTO of hearing implant company MED-EL. Dr Hochmair and her husband Prof. Erwin Hochmair co-created the first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear i ...
, developed the first modern cochlear implant


I


J


K

* Eric Kandel (Nobel Prize), research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons. *
Viktor Kaplan Viktor Kaplan (27 November 1876 – 23 August 1934) was an Austrian engineer and the inventor of the Kaplan turbine. Life Kaplan was born in Mürzzuschlag, Austria into a railroad worker's family. He graduated from high school in Vienna in 1895 ...
, inventor of the Kaplan turbine. *
Wolfgang von Kempelen Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen de Pázmánd ( hu, Kempelen Farkas; 23 January 1734 – 26 March 1804) was a Hungarian author and inventor, known for his chess-playing "automaton" hoax The Turk and for his speaking machine. Personal lif ...
, inventor of The Turk, a chess-playing automaton and Wolfgang von Kempelen's Speaking Machine. * Walter Kohn (Nobel Prize) discovered Density functional theory *
Karl Kordesch Karl Kordesch (18 March 1922 – 12 January 2011) was an Austrian chemist and inventor, most notable for jointly inventing the alkaline battery. In 1953 he moved to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. Life Kordesch was born in Vie ...
, jointly co-inventor of Alkaline battery (together with Canadian Lewis Urry). * Richard Kuhn (Nobel Prize), works on carotenoids and vitamins, co-discovered Soman


L

* Hedy Lamarr, co-invented, with composer George Antheil, an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping. * Karl Landsteiner (Nobel Prize) discovered the main blood groups, co-discovered with
Alexander S. Wiener Alexander Solomon Wiener (March 16, 1907 – November 6, 1976), was an American biologist and physician, specializing in the fields of forensic medicine, serology, and immunogenetics. His pioneer work led to discovery of the Rh factor in 1937, ...
, the
Rhesus factor The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is the most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. The Rh blood group system consists ...
and co-discovered with
Constantin Levaditi Constantin Levaditi (1 August 1874 – 5 September 1953) was a Romanian physician and microbiologist, a major figure in virology and immunology, especially in the study of poliomyelitis and syphilis. Biography He was born in Galați. His fath ...
and
Erwin Popper Erwin Popper (9 December 1879 − 28 September 1955) was an Austrian physician, who, in 1909, along with Karl Landsteiner discovered the infectious character of poliomyelitis.Title of German publication: ''Landsteiner, K. und Popper, E.: Übertragun ...
the
polio virus A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species ''Enterovirus C'', in the family of ''Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of an ...
. * Konrad Lorenz (Nobel Prize) one of the founders of modern ethology


M

*
Ferdinand Mannlicher Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher (January 30, 1848 – January 20, 1904) was an Austrian engineer and small arms designer. Along with James Paris Lee, Mannlicher was particularly noted for inventing the en-bloc clip charger-loading magazine system ...
, along with Scottish Canadian
James Paris Lee James Paris Lee (9 August 1831 – 24 February 1904) was a British Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer. He is best known for having invented the action and magazine that are used in the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield series of ...
, Mannlicher was particularly noted for inventing the en-bloc clip charger-loading magazine system. *
August Musger Professor August Musger (February 10, 1868 – October 30, 1929) was an Austrian priest and physicist who is best remembered for his invention of slow motion. Invention Musger invented the slow motion technique using a mirrored drum as a synchron ...
, inventor of slow motion.


N


O


P

* Wolfgang Pauli (Nobel Prize), discovered Pauli exclusion principle * Max Perutz (Nobel Prize), co-discovered with John Kendrew in studies the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins. *
Fritz Pregl Fritz Pregl ( sl, Friderik Pregl; 3 September 1869 – 13 December 1930), was a Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician from a mixed Slovene-German-speaking background. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1923 for making important contribut ...
(Nobel Prize), making important contributions to
quantitative Quantitative may refer to: * Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties * Quantitative analysis (disambiguation) * Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry * Statistics, also known as quantitative analysis ...
organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
microanalysis Microanalysis is the chemical identification and quantitative analysis of very small amounts of chemical substances (generally less than 10 mg or 1 ml) or very small surfaces of material (generally less than 1 cm2). One of the pioneer ...
, one of which was the improvement of the
combustion train Combustion analysis is a method used in both organic chemistry and analytical chemistry to determine the elemental composition (more precisely empirical formula) of a pure organic compound by combusting the sample under conditions where the resul ...
technique for
elemental analysis Elemental analysis is a process where a sample of some material (e.g., soil, waste or drinking water, bodily fluids, minerals, chemical compounds) is analyzed for its elemental and sometimes isotopic composition. Elemental analysis can be qualita ...
.


Q


R

* Edmund Rumpler, inventor of Rumpler Tropfenwagen


S

*
Franz Sacher Franz Sacher (19 December 1816 – 11 March 1907) was an Austrian confectioner, best known as the inventor of the Sachertorte. Biography According to Sacher's son Eduard, in 1832 Austria's minister of foreign affairs, Prince Metternich, ordere ...
, inventor of
Sachertorte Sachertorte (, , ) is a chocolate cake, or torte of Austrian origin, invented by Franz Sacher, supposedly in 1832 for Prince Metternich in Vienna.Michael Krondl, ''Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert'', , 2011, p. 290: "my best guess is ...
* Erwin Schrödinger, discovered Schrödinger equation * Eduard Suess: discoveries in geology, continent
Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...
and Tethys Ocean was named by Suess


T

*
Gustav Tauschek Gustav Tauschek (April 29, 1899, Vienna, Austria – February 14, 1945, Zürich, Switzerland) was an Austrian pioneer of Information technology and developed numerous improvements for punched card-based calculating machines from 1922 to 1945. ...
, inventor of Drum memory


U


V

* Max Valier, performed the first test drive of a rocket car with liquid propulsion, the
Valier-Heylandt Rak 7 Max Valier (9 February 1895 – 17 May 1930) was an Austrian rocketry pioneer. He was a leading figure in the world's first large-scale rocket program, Opel-RAK, and helped found the German ''Verein für Raumschiffahrt'' (VfR – "Spaceflight ...
.


W

*
Julius Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian physician, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeu ...
(Nobel Prize), discovered treatment of mental disease by inducing a fever, an approach known as pyrotherapy.


X


Y


Z


See also

*
List of Austrian Americans Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...


Notes

Austrians have a history of aircraft and math


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austrian inventors and discoverers ! Inventors and discoverers Lists of inventors
Inventors An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...