German physical chemist who founded capillary chemistry and whose research on liquids advanced knowledge of critical temperature, osmosis, colloids, and surface tension.

In 1882 Traube joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule, Berlin, and there became professor of chemistry in 1900. He left Germany in 1939 and accepted a position at the University of Edinburgh.

Traube's practical interests included physical chemical studies of gastric juice, urine, blood, and milk. He designed a viscometer and capillarimeter to measure viscosity and capillary action. He advocated the use of physical therapy to supplement the traditional treatment of illness by drugs. Traube's rule relates the surface tension of capillary active organic compounds to the number of the hydrocarbon CH₂ groups present in their molecules.