Svante arrhenius born
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Svante Arrhenius – Sweden's first Nobel Laureate
Svante Arrhenius - Sweden's first Nobel Laureate.
At school, Arrhenius’ teacher thought he could be more active, and at Uppsala University he was subject to so much criticism by the professors that he left the university. A career that in some ways started a bit shaky resulted in a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Sweden’s first.
Svante Arrhenius was born in 1859 on Vik’s estate outside Uppsala though only a year later the family moved to Uppsala. As a young man, Svante Arrhenius showed a natural aptitude for mathematics. In his autobiography, he describes it like this: “The numbers stood for my inner vision as were they written on a chalkboard”. Despite his aptitude for mathematics, he did not graduate with top marks and his teacher considered him lazy in some subjects.
Completed a Bachelor's degree in record time
In the same year he graduated, 1876, Arrhenius began his studies at Uppsala University. Unsurprisingly, the subjects he studied were mathematics, chemistry and physics. In just three semesters he became a ph
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by Steve Graham • January 18, 2000
A hundred years ago, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius asked the important question “Is the mean temperature of the ground in any way influenced by the presence of the heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere?” He went on to become the first person to investigate the effect that doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide would have on global climate. The question was debated throughout the early part of the 20th century and is still a main concern of Earth scientists today.
Ironically, Arrhenius’ education and training were not in climate research, but rather electrochemistry. His doctoral thesis on the chemical theory of electrolytes in 1884 was initially regarded as mediocre by his examination committee, but later was heralded as an important work regarding the theory of affinity. In 1891, Arrhenius was a founder and the first secretary of the Stockholm Physical Society, a group of scientists whose interests included geology, meteorology, and astronomy. His association with this society would later help stimulate his
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Svante Arrhenius
The award for chemistry was bestowed to him in honor of his theory of electrolytic dissociation, though in its incipient form, which appeared in his doctoral dissertation, the theory was poorly received by his professors. The barely passing grade that he was given for the dissertation did not discourage Arrhenius, however, and his persistence eventually led to the general acceptance of many of his ideas regarding electrolytes, acids, bases and chemical reactions.
Arrhenius showed early promise of success, learning to read at the age of 3 and acquiring a pronounced interest in mathematical calculations in his youth by observing the accounting practices of his father, a land surveyor for the University of Uppsala. When he was 8 he entered the local school, from which he graduated as the youngest and most advanced student in 1876. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Uppsala, where he studied physics, mathematics and chemistry. In 1881, Arrhenius moved to Stockholm to study under Erik Edlund at the Physical Institute of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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