physicist known for research on long-range radio transmissions. He was educated at Middlebury College, Vermont, and the University of Strasbourg, Germany. In 1904 he began work on radio transmissions for the U.S. Bureau of Standards. In 1908 Austin became head of a naval radiotelegraphy laboratory at the bureau (later to become the Naval Research Laboratory) and from 1923 until 1932 was chief of the bureau's laboratory for special radio transmission research.

Austin's work involved long-range transmission experiments, most notably a study, conducted in 1910, that tested radio contact between ships travelling between the United States and Liberia. This work helped Austin and his collaborator Louis Cohen to develop the Austin–Cohen formula for predicting the strength of radio signals at long distances. Austin's later work centred on the study of radio atmospheric disturbances, i.e., “static.”