He was a pioneer in the area of technical thermodynamics and its applications and published his book Die Dampfturbine (the steam turbine) in 1903.

[1] Stodola was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute (now ETH) in Zurich.

Aurel Stodola was born in Vrbica-Hušták (now a part of region Liptovský Mikuláš), in the Kingdom of Hungary (now in Slovakia) on 11 May 1859.

After first four years, he went to town called Stráže pod Tatrami (now Poprad) in order to improve his German.

[4] In 1924 he endowed a foundation with the stated aim ‘to promote the development of mechanical and electro-technical science in the ETH’.

[4] He maintained friendly contact with academics in Switzerland and abroad, including Albert Einstein.

Another prominent friend was theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician Albert Schweizer.

[3] In 1931, he published his book about philosophy of technology ‘Gedanken zu einer Weltanschauung vom Standpunktedes Ingenieurs’ (‘Thoughts of a worldview from the standpoint of the engineer’).

[4] In 1939, he led a team at Brown Boveri in the first test worldwide using a gas turbine to generate electricity.

This machine is still exhibited today at the Alstom works in Birr and due to its importance is considered to be an ‘historical milestone in mechanical engineering’.

Stodola's book Steam and Gas Turbines[5] was cited by Soviet rocket scientist Fridrikh Tsander in the 1920s.

[7] In 1915–1916 Stodola collaborated with Ferdinand Sauerbruch a German surgeon to develop an advanced mechanically driven prosthetic arm.

"[8] 1905 – Honorary degree of Leibniz University Hannover Corresponding member of French Academy of Sciences.