Swiss mineralogist who originated the idea of a systematic deduction of the space group (one of 230 possible three-dimensional patterns) of crystals by means of X-ray data and supplied a complete outline of methods that have since been used to determine the space groups.

Niggli studied at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich and the University of Zürich, where his thesis research, a field study of schistose rocks, was a pioneering application of physicochemical principles to the study of stress metamorphism. After postgraduate work, he moved in 1915 to a chair at the University of Leipzig, and in 1918 to Tübingen. He succeeded to the chair of mineralogy and petrology at the University of Zürich in 1920.

Niggli's synthesis of mathematical crystallography and experimental X-ray techniques forms the foundation of crystal-structure analysis. His Lehrbuch der Mineralogie und Kristallchemie (1920; “Textbook of Mineralogy and Crystal Chemistry”) set a new standard of achievement and provided a new vista of the content of modern mineralogy.