Karl August Neumann (6 April 1771 in Großbothen – 10 February 1866 in Prague) was a German-Austrian chemist, known for contributions made towards the development of the sugar and flax industries in Bohemia.
[1] Beginning in 1793 he studied cameralistics at the University of Jena.
From 1796 he spent several years as a teacher of commercial sciences on the Danish island of Als, then in 1802 relocated to Bohemia as head of a cotton factory in Josefsthal-Kosmanos.
He made the acquaintance of Franz Josef von Gerstner, who in 1807 appointed him to the Polytechnic Institute in Prague, where from 1808 to 1817, Neumann worked as a professor of chemistry.
In 1817 he was named Kommerzialrat (counsellor of commerce), and from 1817 to 1826, he served on the board of commercial and factory inspections.