The Christian Doppler Foundation
The Christian Doppler Foundation is a foundation with its own legal identity according to the Salzburg law on charities and foundations Nr.70/1976, and is based in Salzburg. The foundation is a not-for-profit organisation.
Creation and Objectives of the Foundation
The Christian Doppler Foundation was founded in 1987 with the goal of honouring the life and works of Christian Doppler, and of making these accessible to the general public.
This involves carrying out research, development and teaching projects for the benefit of Austrian science and economy, as well as related publishing and documenting activities. We also support scientific research activities, and the application of their findings.
In 1972, the parliament of the province of Salzburg debated establishing a Christian Doppler Foundation, and decided to set up the Christian Doppler Prize. Together with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christian Andreas Doppler is Salzburg’s most world-famous inhabitant. Thanks to their fundamental importance to the natural sciences, technology and medicine, as well as their epistemological dimension, which shapes our modern world view, it is impossible to imagine our modern daily lives without Christian Doppler’s pioneering scientific findings.
The Doppler principle is the foundation for many subjects of study: from astronomy to space flight, from fundamental tests of relativity to materials physics, and to the study of fluid dynamics, biology, medicine and quantum theory.
Activity Report | Doppler Foundation | 2019 | 30 years Doppler Foundation (German)
Activity Report | Doppler Foundation | 1987-2002 (German)
The Effect of the Millennium
In his presentation on 21st September 1909 in Salzburg, in which he first talked in public about his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein made the following important statement: regardless of what form the theory of electromagnetic processes will take, the Doppler Principle will certainly remain.
In a talk given at the University of Salzburg in July 2007, Anton Zeilinger called the Doppler effect the “effect of the millennium.”
So far 24 scientists whose work has been directly or indirectly connected with the Doppler effect have won Nobel Prizes for physics.
Structure of the Organisation
The Foundation organs are: the board of trustees, the managing director and the advisory council.
President: Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Maurizio Musso
Director: Dr. Christian Pruner: + 43 662 8044 6253, christian.pruner@sbg.ac.at
Address: Christian Doppler Fonds
Universität Salzburg, Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Fachbereich Chemie und Physik der Materialien
Jakob-Haringer-Straße 2a, A-5020 Salzburg, Österreich
The present members of the board of trustees and the advisory council are listed in the German version of this chapter.