Adolf Knop (12 January 1828, in

Altenau Altenau () is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is situated in the middle of the Harz mountains, between Clausthal-Zellerf ...

– 27 December 1893, in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

) was a German

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

. He studied mathematics and sciences at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, where he was a pupil of chemist

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...

and mineralogist Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann. From 1849 he taught classes at the vocational school in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

. In 1857 he became an associate professor of geology and mineralogy at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

, where in 1863 he attained a full professorship. In 1866 he relocated to

as a professor at the Polytechnic school. In 1878 he succeeded Moritz August Seubert as manager of the Grand Ducal Natural History Cabinet.Adolf Knop
OGV Online (biography in German) He was a catalyst towards the establishment of the ''Oberrheinischer Geologischer Verein'' (Upper Rhine Geological Society). A

cerium Cerium is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Ce and atomic number 58. It is a hardness, soft, ductile, and silvery-white metal that tarnishes when exposed to air. Cerium is the second element in the lanthanide series, and while it ...

-rich variety of

perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as , known as the perovskite (stru ...

called "knopite" is named after him.

Selected works

* ''Molekularconstitution und wachsthum der krystalle'', 1867 – Molecular constitution and growth of crystals. * ''Studien über Stoffwandlungen im Mineralreiche besonders in Kalk- und Amphiboloid-Gesteinen'', 1873 – Studies on material changes in the mineral kingdom, especially in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and amphiboloid rocks.HathiTrust Digital Library
(published works) * ''System der Anorganographie: als Grundlage für Vorträge an Hochschulen'', 1876 – System of "in organography" as a basis for lectures at universities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knop, Adolf 1828 births 1893 deaths People from Goslar (district) University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Giessen Academic staff of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology 19th-century German geologists German mineralogists