Rudolf Tomaschek

Rudolf Karl Anton Tomaschek (23 December 1895 in Budweis, Bohemia– 8 February 1966, Breitbrunn am Chiemsee) was a German experimental physicist. His scientific efforts included work on phosphorescence, fluorescence, and (tidal) gravitation. Tomaschek was a supporter of deutsche Physik, which resulted in his suspension from his university posts after World War II. From 1948 to 1954, he worked in England for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). In 1954, when AIOC became BP, he went to Germany and was president of the Permanent Tidal Commission.

Education

From 1913 to 1918, Tomaschek studied at the Deutschen Universität Prag. He earned his doctorate in the early 1920s under Philipp Lenard, at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, and then became Lenard’s assistant. He completed his Habilitation under Lenard in 1924.

Career

Beginning with 1921, he conducted several aether drift experiments, repetitions of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Trouton–Noble experiment, whose negative outcome further supported Albert Einstein's special relativity – although Tomaschek was a critic of that theory.