The professor at Ingolstadt who encourages Victor Frankenstein’s modern scientific studies is M. Waldman.
Victor first encounters Waldman at the University of Ingolstadt after hearing a dismissive lecture from Professor Krempe. Unlike Krempe, Waldman treats modern natural philosophy as a serious and promising field. He explains that earlier thinkers made important discoveries, but that contemporary scientists have gone further by investigating nature systematically and experimentally.
Waldman’s speech profoundly affects Victor. It renews his enthusiasm for science and redirects his studies toward chemistry, anatomy, and the processes of life. Victor later describes Waldman as a kindly mentor whose conversation inspires him to pursue the experiment that eventually produces the Creature.
A common mix-up is confusing Waldman with Krempe. Both are professors at Ingolstadt, but Krempe criticizes Victor’s previous reading in alchemy, while Waldman encourages his interest in contemporary science. Waldman is a fictional character, though his advocacy of scientific progress reflects early nineteenth-century debates about chemistry, electricity, and human control over nature.