Hermann Rudolph Aubert

Hermann Rudolph Aubert (November 23, 1826 - February 2, 1892) was a German physiologist who was born in Frankfurt. After being conferred a physician in 1850, he was a physiologist in Breslau and later a professor of physiology in Rostock. He was also interested in zoology, and with Friedrich Wimmer he published a German edition of Aristotle's Historia Animalium.

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Aubert is known for his research involving psychophysics, including the way an observer perceives movement and orientation. He conducted several experiments regarding the phenomena of dark adaptation; namely the eye's ability to regain its sensitivity in the dark after it had been exposed to bright lights.

With ophthalmologist Richard Förster (1825-1902), he performed a series of tests concerning "indirect vision". Their findings were published in a treatise called Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Sehens. From their work the eponymous Aubert-Förster phenomenon is derived. This phenomena demonstrates the differences of visual acuity between short and long distances. Another eponym named after him is Aubert's phenonemon which is an optical illusion regarding the factual position of a subjective vertical line when an observer's head is tilted. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the dark.

References

• International Perimetric Society; Measure of Visual Field Limits
• Who Named It?; Hermann Rudolph Aubert