Famous Austrian Chemists

Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-American theoretical chemist Martin Karplus has been associated with Harvard University as a professor of chemistry. The Vienna-born scientist had escaped the Nazis to move to the US. Best known for developing multiscale models for complex chemical systems, he has also worked at Columbia University and the University of Strasbourg.

Walter Kohn was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist. He and fellow theoretical chemist John Pople were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. Kohn made a major contribution to the development of density functional theory. He had an illustrious academic career and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Austrian chemist and engineer Carl Auer, Freiherr von Welsbach isolated neodymium and praseodymium from didymium. His inventions include the gas mantle and ferrocerium "flints" that are used in lighters. He also worked on the tungsten filament that led to the development of the modern light bulb.

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was an Austrian-born chemist. He is best remembered for winning the 1925 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in colloids. Richard Adolf Zsigmondy is also credited with co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope.

Nobel Prize-winning Slovenian-Austrian chemist conducted path-breaking research on the microanalysis of organic compounds. He modified the combustion train method of elemental analysis. He was associated with the Medico-Chemical Institute for most of his career and had also worked at the universities of Graz and Innsbruck.

Herman Francis Mark was an Austrian-American chemist. He is best remembered for his immense contributions to the progression of polymer science. He is also remembered for formulating an equation along with Houwink: the Mark–Houwink equation. Herman Francis Mark was the recipient of several prestigious awards, such as the National Medal of Science, Harvey Prize, and William H. Nichols Medal.

Giacomo Ciamician was an Italian photochemist who conducted an early research in the area of photochemistry. In 1886, he published his first photochemistry experiment and named it On the conversion of quinone into quinol. Giacomo Ciamician also served as a senator.