Photo credit: Nicola Perscheid — Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Wilhelm Ostwald
1853–1932 · Germany · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1909
Made fundamental contributions to catalysis, chemical equilibrium and reaction rates, and developed the Ostwald process for nitric acid.
Nobel Prize work
Nobel 1909 “in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction.” Ostwald defined a catalyst as a substance that accelerates a reaction without being consumed or shifting equilibrium, measured reaction rates systematically, and devised the catalytic oxidation of ammonia over platinum that bears his name. His school turned physical chemistry into an independent discipline.