Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901)

Adolf Eugen Fick 

(3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901) 

Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829, in Kassel, Germany – 21 August 1901, in Blankenberge, Flanders) was a German physiologist. He earned his doctorate in medicine at Marburg in 1851.

In 1855 he introduced Fick's law of diffusion, which governs the diffusion of a gas across a fluid membrane. In 1870 he was the first to devise a technique for measuring cardiac output, called the Fick principle.

Fick managed to double-publish his law of diffusion, as it applied equally to physiology and physics. His work led to the development of the direct Fick method for measuring cardiac output.

Fick also invented the tonometer, work that influenced his nephew (of the same name) who invented the contact lens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eugen_Fick