Carl Barus

Carl Barus (February 19, 1856 – September 20, 1935) was an American physicist and the maternal great-uncle of the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut. The Barus effect is named after him.

Barus was born in Cincinnati, United States. The son of German immigrants (the musician Carl Barus, Sr. and Sophia, nee Möllmann), Barus graduated from Woodward High School, together with William Howard Taft, in 1874.

After high school he studied mining engineering at the Columbia School of Mines, completing a three year course in two years. he moved to Würzburg, Germany, where he studied physics under Friedrich Kohlrausch, and graduated summa cum laude in 1879. He took the degree of Ph.D. in 1880 and would return to America, entering the service of the United States Geological Survey.

Barus died in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.