Eötvös Loránd

Loránd Eötvös
Loránd (Roland) Eötvös
Born	27 July 1848 Buda
Died	8 April 1919(1919-04-08) (aged 70) Budapest
Nationality	Austro-Hungarian
Citizenship	Hungarian
Alma mater	University of Heidelberg
Known for	Eötvös experiment Eötvös rule Eötvös pendulum
Spouse(s)	Gizella Horvát
Children	Jolán Rolanda Ilona
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Budapest
Doctoral advisor	Hermann Helmholtz

Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (Hungarian: vásárosnaményi báró Eötvös Loránd Ágoston or Loránd Eötvös, pronounced [ˈloraːnd ˈøtvøʃ]; 27 July 1848 – 8 April 1919), more commonly called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was an Austro-Hungarian physicist of ethnic Hungarian origin. He is remembered today largely for his work on gravitation and surface tension, and the invention of the torsion pendulum.

Eötvös Loránd University, the Loránd Eötvös Mathematics Competition, and the Eötvös crater on the moon are named after him.

Born in 1848, the year of the Hungarian revolution, Eötvös was the son of the Baron József Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (1813–1871), a well-known poet, writer, and liberal politician, who was cabinet minister at the time, and played an important part in 19th century Hungarian intellectual and political life. His mother was the Hungarian noble lady Agnes Rosty de Barkócz (1825-1913), member of the illustrious noble family Rosty de Barkócz that originally hailed from the Vas county, and through this, he descended from the ancient medieval Hungarian noble Perneszy family, which died out in the 18th century. Loránd's uncle was Pál Rosty de Barkócz (1830–1874) was a Hungarian nobleman, photographer, explorer, who visited Texas, New Mexico, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela between 1857 and 1859.