Zsigmondy, Richard Adolf, 1865–1929, Austrian-German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Munich, 1889. Zsigmondy was a lecturer at the Univ. of Munich (1887–1893) and at the Univ. of Graz (1893–97), then worked as an industrial chemist at the Schott Glass Manufacturing Company (1897–1900) and as a private lecturer (1900–1907). Zsigmondy then taught at the Univ. of Göttingen until he retired in 1929. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925 for his work in colloid chemistry. Zsigmondy demonstrated the heterogeneous nature of colloid solutions, gluelike systems that consist of submicroscopic particles dispersed in another substance. He also developed the ultramicroscope, which enables researchers to study the tiny particles in colloids by illuminating them with a strong beam of light perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope.
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