Important Chemists in History: Svante Arrhenius
Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927). Swedish Chemist. Lecturer and Professor at the Technical Institute in Stockholm (1891-1904). Nobel Prize Winner (1903) and later Director of the Nobel Institute (1905-1927). Arrhenius is best known for his theory of ionic dissociation, which evolved out of his doctoral thesis of 1884, his ionic acid-based definitions (1887), and his introduction of the concept of activation energy in chemical kinetics (1889). He later did pioneering work on the physical chemistry of serums, ecology (where he is responsible for much of our early understanding of the greenhouse effect), and cosmology.
Courtesy of Professor William Jensen, Oesper Chair of the History of Chemistry and Chemical Education, University of Cincinnati