Augusto Righi (27.08.1850-8.06.1921) was an Italian physicist and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei (1898). He was born in Bologna, where he graduated from the engineering school in 1872. In 1873 — 80 he taught at the Technical School in Bologna, in 1880 — 85 at the university in Palermo. In 1885 — 89 he was professor at the University of Padua, and from 1889 at the Institute of Physics of the University of Bologna.
His work concerned electromagnetism, the physics of dielectrics, optics and atomic physics. In 1880 he discovered magnetic hysteresis (independently of E. Warburg). In 1888 he rediscovered the external photoelectric effect and studied it comprehensively, in particular observing the external photoelectric effect in dielectrics as well (ebonite, sulfur); he created the photocell and was the first to use the name “photocell”. He studied oscillatory motions, the Hall and Kerr effects, X-rays and the Zeeman effect. He created (1892) a new type of generator of electromagnetic waves, a spherical oscillator of centimetre waves, and obtained waves 20 and 7.5 cm long. He studied the reflection, refraction, absorption, interference and diffraction of these waves and was the first to observe their double refraction. He showed that radio waves differ from light waves only in wavelength and not in nature. In 1881 he was the first to achieve the modulation of light, by rotating one of two crossed Nicol prisms, and in 1887, together with S. Leduc, he discovered one of the thermomagnetic effects (the Righi — Leduc effect).
A member of a number of academies of sciences, in particular the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1896).