Max Margules

Who was Max Margules?

Max Margules was a mathematician, physicist, and chemist. In 1877 he joined the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics 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, 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.

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 WWI led to a life in poverty. He contented himself with food coupons in the post WWI period. He developed hunger edema, which he refused to remedy and on the 4th of October 1920 he died from starvation.