Albert von Ettingshausen

Albert von Ettingshausen (1850 to 1932) was an Austrian physicist, born in Vienna, whose family moved to Graz in 1854. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Graz and, while still a student, became an assistant professor of physics. From 1878 to 1888 he was an associate professor at Graz alongside Ludwig Boltzmann, and in 1888 he succeeded Jakob Pöschl in the chair of theoretical and experimental physics at Graz University of Technology, where he also taught electrical engineering. In 1886 he and his colleague Walther Nernst, then a doctoral student at Graz, jointly discovered the thermoelectric phenomena now known as the Ettingshausen effect and the Nernst effect. He was a member of the Leopoldina from 1884, was twice elected rector of Graz University of Technology, and retired in 1920.