Enrique Gaviola (born 31.08.1900) is an Argentine physicist. He was born in Mendoza. He studied at the University of La Plata (1917—20) and at the universities of Göttingen (1922-23) and Berlin (1923-25) (at the last of these he worked under P. Pringsheim until 1927). In 1928 he worked at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (USA), in 1929-31 at the University of La Plata, in 1931-36 and 1958 — 61 he was professor at the university in Buenos Aires, in 1937 — 47 and in 1956 he was at the National Astronomical Observatory in Córdoba (director from 1940), in 1957 he was professor at the university in Tucumán, in 1962 at San Juan and from 1963 at Río Negro.
His research concerned optics and astrophysics. In 1924, together with P. Pringsheim and independently of others, he discovered the phenomenon of concentration depolarisation, showing that the degree of polarisation of luminescence depends strongly on the concentration of the substances in the solution and falls rapidly as that concentration rises. He created one of the first fluorometers, using a Kerr cell in it. With its help he was the first to measure the lifetime of the excited state of molecules for a number of dyes in solution.
In 1944-50 and 1952-54 he was president of the Argentine Physical Association.