Hoff, Jacobus Henricus van't 1852-1911
Dutch physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Rotterdam, he was educated at the universities of Leyden, Bonn, Paris and Utrecht. He became Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Amsterdam (1878), and in 1896 moved to Berlin as a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and as professor at the university there. His first work was in organic chemistry, where his researc h on the four bonds of carbon provided a basis for explaining the optical activity of certain organic compounds. From 1877 he began to devote himself to physical chemistry, developing the principles of chemical kinetics and applying thermodynamics to chemical equilibria. The equation for the effect of temperature on equilibria is commonly called the Van't Hoff isochore. His important work on osmotic pressure was published in 1886, and was further developed in the next decade. He later studied the phase relationships of salt deposits. He was awarded the first Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1901, was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1897, and became an honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1888. He is regarded as one of the founders of physical chemistry.