Olexander Smakula

Olexander Smakula
Born	1900 Dobrovody, Austria–Hungary (today Ukraine)
Died	17 May 1983 Auburn, Massachusetts, USA
Nationality	Ukrainian
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	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

Olexander Smakula (Ukrainian: Олександр Теодорович Смакула, Russian: Александр Теодорович Смакула) (1900, Dobrovody, Austria–Hungary, today Ukraine – 17 May 1983, Auburn, Massachusetts, USA) was a Ukrainian physicist known for the discovery of anti-reflective coating of lenses.

Biography

Smakula was born in Dobrovody village, Austria–Hungary (today Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine) in a family of peasants. After finishing his studies at the Ternopil gymnasium he applied to the Georg-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 the Odessa University Olexander Smakula returned to Germany as a head of an optics laboratory in Heidelberg. From 1934 he worked at the Carl Zeiss AG company in Jena. At those times, in 1935, Smakula invented and patented anti-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. Olexander Smakula died on May 17, 1983 and is buried in Auburn, Massachusetts, USA.

External links

• Physicist Oleksandr Smakula and his contributions to science. Welcome to Ukraine 2008, 3.
• Encyclopedia Aeronautica about Smakula
• [1]
• Triumph and tragedy of Olexander Smakula (Ukrainian)