- Alexander Smakula
Infobox_Scientist
name = Alexander Smakula
image_width =
caption =
birth_date = 1900
birth_place = Dobrovody,Russian Empire (todayUkraine )
death_date =17 May 1983
death_place =Auburn, Massachusetts , USA
nationality =
residence =
field =Physicist
work_institution =Odessa University Carl Zeiss AG Massachusetts Institute of Technology
alma_mater =Georg-August University of Göttingen
doctoral_advisor =Robert Pohl
known_for =anti-reflective coating Alexander Smakula ( _uk. Олександр Теодорович Смакула, _ru. Александр Теодорович Смакула) (1900,
Dobrovody ,Russian Empire , todayUkraine –17 May 1983 ,Auburn, Massachusetts , USA) was a physicist of Ukrainian ethnicity best known for the discovery ofanti-reflective coating of lenses.Biography
Smakula was born in
Dobrovody village,Ternopil Oblast ,Russian Empire (todayUkraine ) in a family of peasants. After finishing his studies at the Ternopil gymnasium he applied to theGeorg-August University of Göttingen from which he graduated in 1927. Afterwards he worked as an assistant of Prof.Robert Pohl .After his short stay at theOdessa University Alexander Smakula returned to Germany as a head of an optics laboratory inHeidelberg . From 1934 he worked at theZeiss company inJena . At those times, in 1935, Smakula invented and patentedanti-reflective coating for lenses, which appeared to be a serious improvement in many optical devices. After the end of World War II Smakula went to the USA, where he first worked in Virginia investigating materials for infrared technology. In 1951 he got an offer of professorship at the MIT, where he mainly did research on crystals. Alexander Smakula died on May 17, 1983 and is buried inAuburn, Massachusetts , USA.Links
* [http://www.astronautix.com/astros/smakula.htm Encyclopedia Aeronautica about Smakula]
* [http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/bin.asp?CID=5581&DID=165829&DOC=FILE.PDF Frank N. von Hippel, Arthur von Hippel: The Scientist and the Man, MRS Bulletin 30, 2005]
* [http://www.zn.ua/3000/3300/34514/ Triumph and tragedy of Alexander Smakula] (Russian)
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