Karl Ledersteger

{{No footnotes|date=February 2021}} '''Karl Ledersteger''' (11 November 1900, in [[Vienna]] – 24 September 1972, near Vienna) was an important [[geodesy|geodesist]] and [[geophysics|geophysicist]].

After studies of [[astronomy]], mathematics and geodesy he worked in Germany and later in the [[National Survey of Austria]]. Later he set up the scientific department of the [[Federal Office for Metrology and Survey]] (BEV), Vienna. In the 1950s he was appointed as a [[professor]] of [[geodesy]] and [[astrometry]] at the [[Technical University of Vienna]]. He was head of many research projects, and author of about 200 scientific articles. Still a standard work of [[Astrogeodesy|astronomical]] and [[physical geodesy]] is his textbook of ''Erdmessung'' (Vol. V of the series ''Handbuch der Vermessungskunde'', 871 p.) published 1969.

In 1958/59, Ledersteger was the first geodesist in Central Europe who published on the future fields of [[satellite geodesy]]. Other topics of his research were: * Theory of National survey (Landesvermessung) - and practical computation of the ZEN (Zentraleuropäisches Netz, Berlin ~1940) and of parts of the [[ED50]] * Theory of [[Hydrostatic equilibrium|equilibrium]] figures of Earth and [[planet]]s * [[Isostasy]] of the Earth's crust and its effect on [[geoid]] determination; a main part was published posthumously by his successor [[Kurt Bretterbauer]] * the system of [[vertical deflection]]s and the definition of [[reference ellipsoid]]s.

Ledersteger was in intensive contact with the scientific community of whole Europe, US and Russia (e.g. [[Viktor Ambartsumian]], B. Gutenberg, [[Friedrich Hopfner|F. Hopfner]], W. Heiskanen, [[Max Kneissl|M. Kneissl]], Sir [[Harold Jeffreys]], Vening Meinesz, [[Helmut Moritz|H. Moritz]], A. Prey, [[H. H. Schmid]], [[Ernst Wiechert|E. Wiechert]] and S. Zhongolovitch). For almost 20 years he was chair of [[ÖKIE]] (Austrian Commission for international Geodesy) and a member of many international commissions and research groups, e.g. in [[IUGG]], [[Deutsche Geodätische Kommission|DGK]] and scientific academies of Austria, Germany and Hungary.

Ledersteger received many prizes, several doctorates ''honoris causa'' and calls to [[universities]]. In Vienna he was asked to begin geodetic lectures immediately after World War II, but his professorship was postponed for 10 years because of his participation in [[Nazism|Nazi]] surveys 1940–1945. He translated several works including a textbook of [[Wladimir Alexandrowitsch Magnizki|Magnizki]] & Browar on theoretical geodesy.

== External links, sources and literature == * [http://webapp.uibk.ac.at/alo/cat/collection.jsp?id=5013672 Literature Online], University [[Innsbruck]], {{circa}} 20 titles * [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1970QB280.A45h13...&db_key=AST Karl Ledersteger] 70 years, [[Harvard University|Harvard]] * K. Ledersteger: "Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie (Erdmessung)", ''[[Handbuch der Vermessungskunde]]'', [[Wilhelm Jordan (geodesist)|Wilhelm Jordan]], [[Otto Eggert]] and [[Max Kneissl]] ed., Volume V, chapter 4 (Geoid) and 11 (gravity), J.B.Metzler-Verlag, Stuttgart 1968 * K. Ledersteger, several lectures and reprints (Austrian & German Univ.libraries), c. 1940 bis 1975 * [[Péter Biró (scientist)|Péter Biró]]: ''100 éve született Karl Ledersteger'' (K. Ledersteger 100th birthday). Geodézia és Kartográfia, Vol.52/12 (p. 32 ff), Budapest 2000. * {{DNB portal|118727036|TYP=}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledersteger, Karl}} [[Category:1900 births]] [[Category:1972 deaths]] [[Category:Scientists from Vienna]] [[Category:Austrian geodesists]] [[Category:Academic staff of TU Wien]]