Ostwald, (Friedrich) Wilhelm 1853-1932
German physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Riga, Latvia, he studied chemistry at the University of Dorpat (Tartu), taking the Candidat examinations in 1875. After holding various posts as an assistant at Dorpat, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Riga Polytechnic in 1881. In 1887 he moved to Leipzig as Professor of Physical Chemistry, taking early retirement in 1906. With Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff and Svante August Arrhenius, Ostwald is regarded as one of the founders of physical chemistry. At Dorpat he worked on the measurement of chemical affinity and during his Riga period he used rates of reaction to study chemical affinity and he measured the 'affinity coefficients' of many acids, particularly organic acids, through studies of their catalytic behaviour. His results were greatly illuminated by the electrolytic dissociation theory of Arrhenius, which Ostwald did much to promote. In Leipzig he built up a great school of physical chemistry, which attracted students from all over the world. His studies of electrolytic conductivity (resulting in Ostwald's dilution law) and of the electromotive force of cells were carried out in Leipzig. He founded the journals Zeitschrift f�r physikalische Chemie in 1887 and Annalen der Naturphilosophie in 1901. His various books were very influential, notably his Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Chemie (2 vols, 1883-87). In his long retirement he worked on the theory of colour perception. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1898 and received its Faraday Medal in 1904. For his work on catalysis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1909.