Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff

August 1852, Rotterdam – 1 March 1911, Berlin-Steglitz

The Dutch scientist Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff studied mathematics at Leiden University and chemistry in Bonn and Paris. He was awarded his doctorate at the Utrecht University in 1874. He worked from 1896 until his death as an honorary professor at Berliner Universität and was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Among other things Van't Hoff was a founder of stereochemistry, a field that studies the spatial arrangement of atoms and groups of atoms within the molecule.

He was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1901 for his work on the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure.