Otto Kratky was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

. He is best known for his contribution to the small-angle X-ray scattering

Small-angle X-ray scattering

Small-angle X-ray scattering is a small-angle scattering technique where the elastic scattering of X-rays by a sample which has inhomogeneities in the nm-range, is recorded at very low angles...

 method and for the Kratky plot. The wormlike-chain model in polymer physics, introduced with Günther Porod

Günther Porod

Günther Porod was an Austrian physicist. He is best known for his work on the small-angle X-ray scattering method, done in collaboration with his teacher Otto Kratky...

 in a 1949 paper, is also named the Kratky-Porod model.

From 1946 to 1972, he was professor at the University of Graz

University of Graz

The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

 Institute for Physical Chemistry. In 1956/57 he was rector of the university. In 1985 was elected to the German order Pour le Mérite

Pour le Mérite

The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....

. In 1964, he was awarded the Erwin Schrödinger-Preis

Erwin Schrödinger Prize

The Erwin Schrödinger Prize is an annual award presented by the Austrian Academy of Sciences for lifetime achievement by Austrians in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences...

 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Austrian Academy of Sciences

The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a legal entity under the special protection of the Federal Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research...

.