Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt

He introduced what are now called Goldschmidt symbols Φ and ρ (borrowed from astronomy) for the gnomonic angles of crystals.

He received his doctorate in 1880 under Heinrich Rosenbusch in Heidelberg for his work on mechanical rock analysis and continued his studies in Vienna from 1882 to 1887.

In 1888, he wrote his habilitation about "Projektion und graphische Krystallberechnung" (Projection and graphical Crystal Classification) under the same supervisor as his doctoral dissertation.

He founded the Institut für Mineralogie und Kristallographie in Heidelberg in association with the Josefine and Eduard von Portheim Stiftung, named in memory of his maternal ancestors.

During this period (1919/21), special chartered sea voyages were undertaken, covering Asia, Africa and Oceania, with very distinguished passengers on board, in parallel with the delayed founding of the League of Nations.

In 1919, he donated his and his wife's extensive collection of art and ethnographic artefacts to the state of Baden as the Josephine and Eduard von Portheim-Stiftung.