Sørensen, Soren Peter Lauritz

Sørensen, Søren Peter Lauritz

20th Century
Born: Haurebjerg near Slagelse (Denmark), 9 January 1868 
Died: Copenhagen (Denmark), 12 February 1939
Sørensen first began to study medicine at the University of Copenhagen but soon moved to chemistry where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1899 working under S.M. Jørgensen on inorganic syntheses. Sørensen became director of the chemical section of Carlsberg Laboratories in 1901 and retired from this post in 1938. While at the Carlsberg Laboratories, Sørensen started to study amino acids, proteins and enzymes. Because hydrogen ion concentration played a key role in enzymatic reactions he devised a simple way of expressing it. By taking a negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration a convenient scale can be established; this is the well-known pH value. He also developed buffer solutions to maintain constant pH of solutions (Sørensen buffers).

Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen
Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen, a Danish biochemist, suggested a convenient way of expressing acidity — the negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration (pH).