Wilhelm Ostwald
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Wilhelm Ostwald
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1909
Born: 2 September 1853, Riga, Russian Empire (now Latvia)
Died: 4 April 1932, Leipzig, Germany
Affiliation at the time of the award: Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Prize motivation: “in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction”
Prize share: 1/1
Work
In the 19th century chemists noticed that certain chemical reactions seemed to be caused by substances that remained unchanged in the process. In the 1880s Wilhelm Ostwald studied the speeds of numerous chemical reactions, including reactions occurring in the presence of acids and bases. In 1894 he revealed what happens: a substance—a catalyst—can affect a chemical reaction's speed, but is not included in its end-products. This understanding shed great light on chemical reactions occurring in both industrial processes and living organisms.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
