death_date death_place work_institution birth_place citizenship image_size field birth_date known_for image article_title name
19 september 1891 vienna , austria-hungary university of budapest university of vienna szepesbéla austrian empire -lrb- today spišská belá , slovakia -rrb- / zipser bela , kingdom of hungary , kingdom of hungary 200px physics 6 january 1807 geometrical optics , photography , cinematography joseph petzval.jpg joseph petzval
 joseph petzval
joseph petzval

joseph petzval -lrb- january 6 , 1807 - september 19 , 1891 -rrb- was a mathematician , inventor , and physicist best known for his work in optics .
he was born in the town of zipser bela in the kingdom of hungary -lrb- now spišská belá in slovakia -rrb- .
petzval studied and later lectured at the institutum geometricum -lrb- currently budapest university of technology and economics -rrb- in buda -lrb- today part of budapest -rrb- .
he headed the institute of practical geometry and hydrology/architecture between 1841 and 1848 .
later in life , he accepted an appointment to a chair of mathematics at the university of vienna .
petzval became a member of the hungarian academy of sciences in 1873 .
petzval is considered to be one of the main founders of geometrical optics , modern photography and cinematography .
among his inventions are the petzval portrait lens and opera glasses , both still in common use today .
he is also credited with the discovery of the laplace transform and is also known for his extensive work on aberration in optical systems .
