Van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus

Van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus (1852-1911), Dutch physical chemist and Nobel laureate, known for his studies of the structure of organic compounds. He was born in Rotterdam and educated at the Technical University of Delft and the universities of Leiden, Bonn, Paris, and Utrecht. In 1876 he became a lecturer in physics at the Veterinary School in Utrecht and was Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology at the University of Amsterdam in 1878. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Leipzig in 1887 and at Berlin in 1896. Often called the father of physical chemistry, he achieved prominence very early when, in 1874, he put forward a theory to explain the structure of organic compounds. His relation of the optically active carbon compounds to asymmetrical and three-dimensional structures laid the basis for the science of stereochemistry. In 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work relating thermodynamics to chemical reactions and his studies of the properties of solutions. His later research on salt deposits was important to the German chemical industry.