Wilhelm Ostwald

Baltic German chemist

Wilhelm Ostwald (23 September 1853 - 4 April 1932) was a Latvian-German chemist born in Riga, Latvia, winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Wilhelm Ostwald
Wilhelm Ostwald by Nicola Perscheid
Born
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald

(1853-09-02)2 September 1853
Died4 April 1932(1932-04-04) (aged 78)
NationalityBaltic German by birth. Prussian, German (after 1871)
Alma materUniversity of Dorpat
Known forCatalysis
Coining the term 'Mole'
HSL and HSV
Liesegang rings
Ostwald dilution law
Ostwald process
Ostwald ripening
Ostwald's rule
Ostwald viscometer
Ostwald-Folin Pipette
Ostwald–Freundlich equation
AwardsFaraday Lectureship Prize (1904)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1909)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical chemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of Dorpat
Riga Polytechnicum
University of Leipzig
Doctoral advisorCarl Schmidt[source?]
Doctoral studentsArthur Amos Noyes
Georg Bredig
Paul Walden
Frederick George Donnan

His parents are Elizabeth Leuckel and Gottfried Wilhelm Ostwald. His son is Wolfgang Ostwald. Wilhelm Ostwald was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 and it is Latvia's only Nobel prize. Although he was a German chemist, he was born in Latvia so the Nobel prize went to Latvia.