Aristides Brezina

Aristides Brezina (May 4, 1848 - May 25, 1909) was an Austrian mineralogist who was born in Vienna. In 1872 he graduated from the University of Tübingen, and afterwards taught crystallography at the University of Vienna. In 1878 he succeeded Gustav Tschermak (1836-1927) as custodian of the meteorite collection at Vienna, and from 1889 until 1896 he was director of the Mineralogisch-Petrographische Abteilung (Department of Mineralogy-Petrography).

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Brezina is known for his study of meteorites, and with German mineralogist Gustav Rose (1798-1873) and Gustav Tschermak, he was co-architect of the "Rose-Tschermak-Brezina classification" system for meteorites. It was largely based on criteria such as texture and color, and was widely used from the mid-1880s until 1916 when a simpler method of classification was devised. The mineral brezinaite which is found in meteorites is named after him.

References

• Biographies of Mineralogists
• Meteorites: A Petrologic, Chemical and Isotopic Synthesis