August Adolph Kundt (18.02.1839-21.01.1894) was a German experimental physicist and a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1888). He was born in Schwerin. He graduated from the University of Berlin (1864). In 1868 he was professor at the Zurich Polytechnic, in 1869-72 at the University of Würzburg, in 1872-88 at the University of Strasbourg and director (from 1879) of its Physical Institute, and from 1888 professor at the University of Berlin.
His main research concerned acoustics, optics, metal optics and molecular physics. He developed (1866) a method of measuring the speed of sound in solids and in gases with the help of the so-called Kundt figures, carried out (1871) studies of the anomalous dispersion of light which became classics, and gave experimental confirmation of a number of the main propositions of the kinetic theory of gases. He discovered the Kundt effect in electro-optics and developed (1888) a method of determining the refractive index of light in metals. He also studied internal friction and the thermal conductivity of gases, double refraction in liquids, the piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of crystals and other subjects.
He created one of the first physics institutes and the first international school of experimental physicists. Kundt's pupils included W. Röntgen, P. N. Lebedev, B. B. Golitsyn, E. Warburg, O. Wiener, W. Hallwachs, F. Paschen, H. Rubens, E. Cohn, O. Lehmann and others. A foreign member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1888).