Otto Kratky


Otto Kratky was an Austrian physicist. He is best known for his contribution to the small-angle X-ray scattering method, for the Kratky plot, and for the invention the density metering using the oscillating u-tube principle. The worm-like chain model in polymer physics, introduced with Günther Porod in a 1949 paper, is also named the Kratky–Porod model.
In 1936, Kratky won the Haitinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From 1946 to 1972, he was professor at the University of Graz Institute for Physical Chemistry. In 1956/57 he served as rector of the university. In 1985 he was elected to the German order Pour le Mérite. Kratky was awarded the Erwin Schrödinger-Preis by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1964,
the Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1970,
and the Gregori Aminoff Prize in 1987.