author
Leopold Pfaundler von Hadermur
1839–1920
A 19th-century Austrian physicist and chemist, he helped push physical chemistry forward long before it was fully established as its own field. His work ranged from chemical reaction theory to molecular physics, and he also had a life beyond the lab as an alpinist and public intellectual.
1 Audiobook
International Language and Science Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science
by Leopold Pfaundler von Hadermur, Louis Couturat, Otto Jespersen, Richard Lorenz, Wilhelm Ostwald
About the author
Born in Innsbruck on February 14, 1839, and later active in both Innsbruck and Graz, he studied chemistry, physics, and mathematics and went on to build a long academic career in Austria. Sources consistently describe him as an Austrian physicist and chemist, and several biographical references note that he studied in Innsbruck, Munich, and Paris before becoming a professor.
He is remembered especially for work in physical chemistry and chemical kinetics. Reference works credit him with early ideas about how reactions proceed through short-lived molecular combinations, an insight later seen as anticipating parts of modern reaction theory. He also worked on topics in molecular physics, and German-language biographical sources describe him not only as a scientist but also as an alpinist.
He died in Graz on May 6, 1920. Some summaries also mention his family connections to medicine: he was the father of pediatrician Meinhard von Pfaundler and the father-in-law of Theodor Escherich.