Doppler, Christian (30.11.1803–17.03.1853) was an Austrian physicist, mathematician and astronomer, and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1848). Born in Salzburg. Graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna (1825). In 1829–33 he was an assistant in Vienna, in 1835–47 he worked in Prague (professor from 1841), in 1847–49 he was professor at the Mining Academy in Chemnitz, and from 1850 professor at the University of Vienna and director of the world's first Physical Institute attached to a university, which was set up on his initiative.
His work in physics was in the field of optics and acoustics. In 1842 he gave a theoretical account of how the frequency of sound and light oscillations perceived by an observer depends on the velocity of the observer and of the source of the oscillations (the Doppler principle). His research also concerned the aberration of light, the theory of the microscope and the theory of colours.