Ludwig Friedrich Kämtz

(Liudvig Martynovich). Born Jan. 11, 1801, in Treptow, Pomerania; died Dec. 8, 1867, in St. Petersburg. German meteorologist who worked in Russia from 1841 to the end of his life. He became an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1865.

Kämtz graduated from the University of Halle in 1822 and became a professor of physics there in 1827. In 1842 he became a professor at the University of Dorpat (Tartu). He served as director of the Central Physics Observatory in 1866. Kämtz conducted research on the characteristics of the daily cycle of temperature, air pressure, and humidity. He also carried out geomagnetic observations. He was the first to establish the monsoon nature of the atmospheric circulation of the Russian Far North. His principal work, A Textbook of Meteorology (1831–36), was translated into many languages.