Aristides Brezina

Aristides Brezina (4 May 1848 – 25 May 1909) was an Austrian mineralogist born in Vienna.

In 1878 he succeeded Austrian mineralogist Gustav Tschermak (1836-1927) as custodian of the meteorite collection at Vienna, and from 1889 until 1896 he was director of the Mineralogisch-Petrographische Abteilung (Department of Mineralogy-Petrography).

[1] Brezina is known for his study of meteorites, and with German mineralogist Gustav Rose (1798-1873) and Tschermak, he was co-architect of the "Rose-Tschermak-Brezina classification" system for meteorites.

[2] It was largely based on criteria such as texture and color, and was widely used from the mid-1880s to around 1920 when a simpler method of classification was proposed by George Thurland Prior.

[3] Brezinaite, a mineral found in meteorites, is named after him.