Background
He initially studied medicine in Vienna at the request of his father, but switched to the natural sciences under the influence of Friedrich Mohs (1773–1839).
He initially studied medicine in Vienna at the request of his father, but switched to the natural sciences under the influence of Friedrich Mohs (1773–1839).
Anton"s father was an apothecary. In 1827 he became an assistant to mathematician Andreas von Ettingshausen (1796–1878) and to physicist Andreas von Baumgartner (1793–1865) at the University of Vienna. Three years later he was appointed professor of physics and chemistry at the Joanneum Technical Institute in Graz, and from 1843 served as a professor of technical chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna.
In 1845 he succeeded Paul Traugott Meissner (1778–1864) as chair of chemistry.
In 1868 he was appointed Master of the Austrian State Mint (Münze Österreich). Declining health made him retire in 1874.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Austrian Academy of Sciences. Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities]
With Ettingshausen, Baumgartner and Wilhelm von Haidinger (1795–1871), he was a founding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, serving as its secretary from 1851 until his death.