Franz S. Exner

Franz Serafin Exner (1849 to 1926) was an Austrian physicist and professor at the University of Vienna, known for pioneering physical chemistry education in Austria. The early introduction to university curricula of subjects such as radioactivity, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, electricity in the atmosphere and color theory in Austria is often credited to him. He came from an important university family; his father was a professor of philosophy in Prague and later an influential reformer of Austrian university education. He began his physics studies at Vienna in 1867, spent an academic year at Zurich under August Kundt, working alongside Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1871 and his habilitation in 1874, and was research assistant to Viktor von Lang until 1879. He advised many notable students including Stefan Meyer, Erwin Schrödinger and Marian Smoluchowski, and was associated with Herbartianism.