Fritz Haber: December 9, 1868-January 29, 1934.
Fritz Haber (1868-1934) was a German physical chemist. Nobel laureate and foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His greatest accomplishment in science was the development of a practical method to prepare nitrogen from air (nitrogen fixation or Haber-Bosch process). While working on the toxicity of war gases. he formulated 'Haber's rule', also known as C x T= constant in order to characterize the toxicity of an inhalant. Between 1919 and 1933. he was one of the leading figures in revitalizing science in Germany. At his institute in Berlin worked such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn. His last paper described what became known as the Haber-Weiss reaction. After his death he was for a long time forgotten by the Nazis because he was Jewish and after World War II by the Allies because of his work on war gases in World War I. And yet he was one of the truly great modern scientists. not only because of his science, but also because of the role he played in science politics and policies.
Witschi
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ITEH and Department of Molecular Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California Davis 95616, USA. hrwitschi@ucdavis.edu
D002618:Chemical Warfare / Q000266:history; D002627:Chemistry, Physical / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation; D009613:Nobel Prize