Chemistry
In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses.
Hermann Emil Fischer always possessed an excellent memory, a fascination with scientific problems and a rare determination to prove hypotheses. These characteristics were essential for someone who would go on to become one of the greatest scientists of all time. Against his father’s will, who would have liked his son to continue the family timber business in Cologne, Germany, Fischer pursued the natural sciences, especially physics, and was rewarded for his dedication.
After three years with a private tutor, the young German attended the local school. He also studied in Wetzlar and Bonn, where he passed his final exam with distinction in 1869. Faced with his son’s insistence on studying science, his father decided to enroll him in the University of Bonn to study chemistry. What Fischer really wanted, however, was to dedicate himself to physics. One year later, accompanied by his cousin, Otto Fischer, he left for the University of Strasbourg. There he met Adolf von Baeyer, whose influence finally persuaded him to return to chemistry.
In 1874 he took his doctorate and was also appointed assistant teacher at Strasbourg. He continued his studies and discovered the first hydrazine base, phenylhydrazine, and showed its relationship with hydrazobenzene and sulphonic acid. In 1875, Adolf von Baeyer went to the University of Munich, and Fischer accompanied him as his assistant in the subject of organic chemistry. Later Fischer taught at the universities of Erlangen and Wurzburg, and in 1892 he was invited to the University of Berlin where he stayed until his death.
Fischer left his mark on research in every university in which he worked. In Munich he continued his studies in the field of hydrazenes and, along with his cousin Otto, formulated a new theory on the constitution of dyes derived from triphenylmethane. In Erlangen he studied the active ingredients of tea, coffee and cocoa and established the constitution of a series of components in this field. His work on sugars between 1884 and 1894 were significant, particularly his synthesis of glucose, fructose and mannose and his studies of glycosides.
His research into purines and sugars was recognized with the 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Fischer also contributed to the study of proteins, enzymes and other chemical substances. His dedication to chemistry was further acknowledged with the Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society in 1906, the Elliot Cresson Gold Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1913, and many other distinctions. After his death, the German Chemical Society initiated a prize in his name, the Emil Fischer Memorial Medal.
Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927)
1903 Chemistry
In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation.
The Swede Svante August Arrhenius, father of the ionic theory that explains the movement of electric currents in solutions, was born in Vik to a family of farmers. When he was only a year old his parents moved to Uppsala, where he first attended school; he demonstrated a rare facility for solving mathematical problems and an unusual interest in physics and mathematics.
In 1876 he entered the University of Uppsala, the oldest university in Sweden, to study mathematics, chemistry and physics. In 1881 he moved to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. After working as an assistant to a professor he developed his doctoral thesis on the galvanic conductivity of electrolytes. Arrhenius concluded that electrical conductivity was possible in a solution due to the presence of ions. He was to later say that “the idea occurred on the night of the May 17, 1883, and I could not look at anything else until I had solved the problem.”
The relationship between electricity and chemistry was rejected by the scientific community at the time. However, while jury members raised many doubts about the new theory, Arrhenius obtained his doctorate in 1884. He lectured in physical chemistry at Uppsala, the first Swede to lecture in this branch of science, and, in 1895, he became a physics professor at the Stockholm Högskola (the “High School of Stockholm,” a private foundation that was the equivalent of a university science faculty). Arrhenius managed to win over many scientists in diverse fields and, in 1903, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, his theory for electrolytic dissociation having been widely accepted by that time. Two years later, despite being made various offers from universities, he stopped giving classes and became chief of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, newly created by the Academy of Sciences.
Arrhenius accumulated various distinctions, including being the first foreigner to be elected to the Royal Society and receiving a medal from the Chemical Society, among other prizes. He also published many popular books that could be understood by a non-scientific public. His interests in astronomy led him to propose a new theory on the formation of the solar system, based on the collision of stars, and he did valuable research into the use of chemical serum in fighting diseases.
Both in his professional and private life, Arrhenius was a quiet but happy man. During World War I he showed great bravery, successfully freeing and repatriating German and Austrian scientists. He married twice, first in 1894 to Sofia Rudbeck, with whom he had a son, and then to Maria Johansson in 1905, with whom he had three children. He died in Stockholm in 1927 and was buried in Uppsala.
Henri Becquerel (1852–1908)
1903 Physics
In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity.
Antoine Henri Becquerel was one of the most renowned physicists at the end of the 19th century, and his work is still widely recognized today. He grew up in a world where physics was a popular subject of conversation and a part of everyday life. His interest in physics began with his grandfather, Antoine César, and his father, Alexander Edmond Becquerel, was a scientist and professor of applied physics. Aware of the enormous work he would have to do to become a respected physicist, Henri Becquerel began his career at the Paris Polytechnic in 1872. He also distinguished himself at the École Nationale des Ponts-et-Chaussées (National School of Bridges and Roads), where he became an engineer and later received his doctorate. Along with these achievements he advanced his professional career by teaching at both the Department of Natural History at the Paris Museum and the Paris Polytechnic.
An extremely hardworking man, Becquerel dedicated himself to physics, dividing his days betweens the demands of teaching, studying and scientific research. He did, however, marry twice, first to the daughter of a civil engineer. Their son became a physicist, ushering in a fourth generation of scientists into the Becquerel family. This marriage ended after four years with the death of his wife, and he remarried a decade later, in 1890.
Among the daily bustle, Becquerel continued his research, strengthening his family’s reputation and maintaining his own high profile. In 1896 he demonstrated the phenomenon that would overshadow his previous work. His discovery of spontaneous radioactivity brought him the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he shared with Marie and Pierre Curie, who extended his research into the phenomena. Showing that not all atomic nuclei are stable has proven to be one of the greatest scientific revolutions of our age.
Becquerel published many papers about his discoveries, mainly in the Annales de physique et chimie (Annals of Physics and Chemistry) and the Comptes rendus de l’Academie des Sciences
