Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff was a Dutch physical and organic chemist whose groundbreaking theoretical concepts revolutionized multiple branches of molecular science. In 1874, before completing his doctorate, the twenty-two-year-old van 't Hoff proposed that the four chemical valences of the carbon atom are directed toward the corners of a regular tetrahedron. By explaining that asymmetric carbon atoms give rise to optical isomerism (enantiomers), he founded the science of stereochemistry (3D chemistry).

Turning to physical chemistry, van 't Hoff formulated the laws of chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium, deriving the famous van 't Hoff equation connecting the equilibrium constant of a reaction to temperature and enthalpy changes. Furthermore, he demonstrated that dilute solutions obey laws mathematically identical to ideal gas laws, introducing the van 't Hoff factor (i) for osmotic pressure and electrolytic dissociation. For his discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions, van 't Hoff made history in 1901 by receiving the very first Nobel Prize in Chemistry.