Residence Austria, Germany Education University of Vienna Name Max Margules | Alma mater University of Vienna Fields Meteorology | |
Born 23 April 1856
Brody, Galicia,
Austrian Empire ( 1856-04-23 ) Institutions Austria ZAMG (Vienna)
University of Vienna Known for Margules formula
Margules activity model Notable awards Hann Medal of Acknowledgement (1919) Died October 4, 1920, Perchtoldsdorf, Austria | ||
Academic advisors Ludwig Boltzmann | ||
Max Margules was a mathematician, physicist, and chemist. In 1877 he joined the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Vienna as a volunteer. After two years he left Vienna to study in Berlin for a year. He returned to Vienna and received his PhD in Electrodynamics. During his doctoral studies he was a Privatdozent: an unpaid position, but one which allowed him to lecture students. Students' fees gave him some income. Later, administration offered this teaching job to someone else after he refused to convert from Judaism to acquire the position, which ended his academic career. In 1882 he returned to ZAMG. During this time he focused on electro- and hydrodynamic problems. In his free time he studied physical and physico-chemical problems. The Duhem–Margules equation and the Margules' Gibbs free energy equation are examples of his free-time devotion. In 1900 his interest switched to meteorology and deployed his thermodynamic knowledge. This led to the Margules formula, a formula for characterizing the slope of a front.
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In 1919 the Austrian Society for Meteorology awarded him the silver Hann Medal of Acknowledgement. Margules accepted the medal, but rejected the money. He rejected all attempts to make the last year of his life bearable. His small pension and the devaluation of the currency due to World War I led to a life in poverty. He contented himself with food coupons in the post World War I period. He developed hunger edema, which he refused to remedy and on the October 4, 1920 he died from starvation.
Today Julius von Hann, head of ZAMG in that time, and Max Margules are seen as theoretical pillars of meteorology.