Joseph Maria Pernter

Joseph Maria Pernter (15 March 1848 at Neumarkt, South Tyrol, – 20 December 1908 at Arco) was an Austrian Jesuit and scientist.

After entering the Central Institute as volunteer in October, 1878, Pernter became assistant in 1880, and adjunct in 1884; in 1885 he also began to act as a privatdozent at the university.

Instruments for recording earth tremors were set up, and the institute supervised the network of stations for the study of earthquakes, its name being changed to "Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik".

In his most important work "Meteorologische Optik", he collected all published treatises and also supplied original papers necessary to complete certain subjects; he died before he had finished it.

In the essay "Voraussetzungslose Forschung, freie Wissenschaft und Katholizismus", published during the Mommsen agitation,[clarification needed] he sought to prove the possibility of combining strict religious faith with exact research.