Van ‘t Hoff, Jacobus Henricus (1852-1911)
19th Century
Born: Rotterdam (The Netherlands), 1852
Died: Berlin (Germany), 1911
Van ‘t Hoff studied at the Polytechnical School at Delft (1869-1871), at the University of Leiden (1871-1872), in Bonn with Kekulé (1872), in Paris with Wurtz (1873) and obtained his doctor’s degree in Utrecht (1874). He published in 1874 his famous article about the tetrahedral arrangement of the carbon atom, which could prove the optical isomery of carbon compounds. He was offered a professorship in Amsterdam (1879-1896). He went to work on thermodynamics. In 1884 he developed the dynamic equilibrium model of chemical reactions. In 1886 the theory of the osmotic pressure of diluted solutions. In 1896 he transferred his labors to Berlin. When the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, Van ‘t Hoff received the first Nobel Prize for chemistry.
Born: Rotterdam (The Netherlands), 1852
Died: Berlin (Germany), 1911
Van ‘t Hoff studied at the Polytechnical School at Delft (1869-1871), at the University of Leiden (1871-1872), in Bonn with Kekulé (1872), in Paris with Wurtz (1873) and obtained his doctor’s degree in Utrecht (1874). He published in 1874 his famous article about the tetrahedral arrangement of the carbon atom, which could prove the optical isomery of carbon compounds. He was offered a professorship in Amsterdam (1879-1896). He went to work on thermodynamics. In 1884 he developed the dynamic equilibrium model of chemical reactions. In 1886 the theory of the osmotic pressure of diluted solutions. In 1896 he transferred his labors to Berlin. When the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, Van ‘t Hoff received the first Nobel Prize for chemistry.
Related Links
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901"in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions"
The Arrangement of Atoms in Space (1874-77)Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff published the first 12-page version of this epochal pamphlet in Dutch when he was barely 22.
Eric Weisstein’s World of Scientific Biography: van’t Hoff, Jacobus (1852-1911) Dutch chemist who suggested that asymmetry in molecules resulted from the physical arrangement of atoms.