Karl Ludwig Felix Machatschki (22 September 1895 - 17 February 1970) was an Austrian mineralogist.
He was born in Arnfels (near Leibnitz) in Styria, Austria. He studied at the University of Graz, obtaining his habilitation in 1925; in 1927 he joined the group of Victor Goldschmidt in Oslo for one year. In 1930 he was appointed as a professor at the University of Tübingen. He changed university twice, first in 1941 to the University of Munich and finally in 1944 to the University of Vienna.[1]
In 1928 he published Zur Frage der Struktur und Konstitution der Feldspäte, a paper in which he develops the concept of the atomic structure of silicates and formulates the construction principle of feldspars.[2] In 1946 he published Grundlagen der allgemeinen Mineralogie und Kristallchemie ("Fundamentals of general mineralogy and crystal chemistry").
In 1961, Machatschki was awarded the Austrian Medal for Science and Art.[3] The "Felix-Machatschki-Preis" is an award given by the Österreichische Mineralogische Gesellschaft in recognition of outstanding international scientific work in the field of mineralogy.[4] The mineral machatschkiite commemorates his name.[5]
He was also the author of 140 individual articles in scientific journals.[1]