Svante August Arrhenius
From Philosopedia
Arrhenius, Svante August (19 February 1859 - 22 October 1927)
A physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner, Arrhenius was born at Vik, near Uppsala, in Sweden. He studied at Upsala University, then under a professor in Stockholm. His 1884 thesis, on the galvanic conductivity of electrolyes, won him the first docentship at Uppsala in physical chemistry, a new branch of science.
Arrhenius was also awarded a traveling fellowship and worked with scientists throughout Europe. He was appointed professor of physics in 1895 at Stockholm's Hogskola. In 1903, he won the Nobel Prize for chemical research, for originating the theory of electrolytic dissociation, or ionization. He also investigated osmosis, toxins and antitoxins.
He was offered the position of chief of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, founded just for him. Arrhenius wrote classic textbooks in his field, which were translated into many languages, and also popularized science for the general public, with such books as The Destinies of the Stars (1919). His wide interests in science are exemplified by his contributions to the understanding of such phenomenon as the Northern Lights.
In 1914, he was awarded the Faraday Medal of the Chemical Society. During World War I, he worked to get the release of many German and Austrian scientists who had been made prisoners of war.
According to freethought historian Joseph McCabe, Arrhenius was an agnostic and a prominent member of the Monist League - the German equivalent of England’s Rationalist Press Association. Arrhenius held that “conceptions of an all-embracing Nature and of freedom and manhood advance and recede together.”
