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Alfred WernerSwiss chemist, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry (1913).
Date of Birth: 12.12.1866
Country:  Switzerland |
Content:
Biography of Alfred Werner
Alfred Werner (1866-1919) was a Swiss chemist and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913. He is known as the creator of the theory of complex compounds. Born in the town of Mülhausen in Alsace, France, Alfred Werner was the fourth and youngest child of the Werner family. His father, Jean-Adam, was a skilled car mechanic, turner, and farmer known for his immense physical strength. Alfred's mother, Salomé-Jeanette, came from a wealthy Protestant family and married against her parents' wishes, converting to Catholicism. Jean-Adam greatly respected his wife and sought her advice on all matters of life.
At the age of 28, Alfred Werner married Emma Gisker, the adopted daughter of a pastor, who was 21 at the time. Following their marriage, Werner, described as a person of "impeccable reputation with an annual income of 4000 francs," obtained Swiss citizenship and moved to Zurich. The couple had a son and a daughter.
Pioneering Work in Zurich
Werner spent the rest of his life in Zurich, where he became a professor at the university and the president of the Swiss Chemical Society. From the beginning of his scientific career, Werner displayed a passionate and almost religious dedication to chemistry. He wrote, "I am often overwhelmed with ecstasy in the face of the beauty of my science. The deeper I delve into its secrets, the more it appears to me as immense, majestic, and too beautiful for mere mortals." It is no wonder, then, that Werner was strict with his students, intolerant of idleness and disorder. Once, when he observed a mess in the laboratory, Werner swiftly swept all the chemical glassware off the table without saying a word, causing it to shatter into pieces.
A Memorable Personality
However, Werner's contemporaries did not remember him as a dry and boring pedant. He was a broad-shouldered man of robust build, lively and animated, with sharp gestures and movements. He often laughed contagiously, almost childishly. His massive figure, enveloped in smoke from his ever-present cigar, and his face with large penetrating eyes immediately captured attention. Werner was independent in his judgments and possessed the rare ability to speak the truth to anyone, regardless of their social status. He was said to have "straightforward integrity."
In 1913, King Gustav V of Sweden awarded Alfred Werner the gold medal of the Nobel Prize and a diploma stating that the prize was given "in recognition of his work on the nature of molecular bonds, through which he shed new light on old problems and opened up new areas for research, particularly in inorganic chemistry."
