Academy in Stockholm

The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences that for physiological or medical work by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in the awarding of the prizes no consideration whatsoever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not. 

Lars Fredrik Nilson was born in 1840 in Skonberga. He studied in Uppsala and became an assistant and in 1878 professor of analytical chemistry there. In 1883 he was appointed professor of agricultural chemistry at the agricultural academy in Stockholm. He died in 1899 in Stockholm. In addition to rare earth elements he investigated inorganic complex compounds, later he published papers on agricultural chemical subjects. 

Fig. 3.7 Jons Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848), professor of chemistry in Stockholm and discoverer of the elements selenium, silicon, thorium and zirconium. He introduced the modem chemical symbols and also the term organic chemistry . From the book Berzelius, Europaresendren by C. G. Bernhard with kind permission of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences...

From 1878 to 1883 Nilson served as professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Upsala, but in his later years he taught at the Agricultural Academy at Stockholm. He found that the sterility of the calcareous moors of his native island was caused by lack of potash. After liberal use of kainite fertilizer, recommended by Nilson, Gothland Island began to yield good crops of sugar beets (6). 

Harry Kroto, Istvdn Hargittai, and William Lipscomb (all three are Kentucky Colonels) at the reception of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences during the centennial Nobel celebration in Stockholm, December 2001 (photograph by M. Hargittai). 

Arrhenius received his early education at the cathedral school in Uppsala, excelling in biology, physics, and mathematics. In 1876 he entered the University of Uppsala and studied physics, chemistry, and mathematics, receiving his B.S. two years later. While he continued graduate classes for three years in physics at Uppsala, his studies were not completed there. Instead, Arrhenius transferred to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm in 1881 to work under Erick Edlund to conduct research in the field of electrical theory. 

Nobel gave instructions that the prizes for chemistry and physics were to be awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for physiology or medicine by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, for literature by the Swedish Academy, and for peace by a five-person committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. The deliberations are secret, and the decisions cannot be appealed. In 1969, the Swedish Central Bank established a prize in economics in Nobel s honor. The recipient of this prize is selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On December 10—the anniversary of Nobel s death—the prizes are awarded in Stockholm, except for the peace prize, which is awarded in Oslo. 

The results of the present author mentioned in this Chapter had a partial financial support from the Robert A. Welch Foundation, Houston (Grant B-1203). Useful discussions were held with Prof Michael Bratychak at the Lvivska Politechnika State University Prof Ulf W. Gedde at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Prof Robert Maksimov at the Institute of Polymer Mechanics of the University of Latvia in Riga Prof Valery Privalko atthe Inshtule ofChemistry of Macromolecular Compounds of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Prof Janusz Walasek of the Technical University of Radom. 

Between 1884 and 1887 Samfundet continued as a loosely organized forum for lectures and discussions similar to the academic organizations. Topics concentrated, as expected, on how to control purity and quality of different industrial products, such as soap, the amount of sulfur and phosphorous in iron, etc. New synthetic methods were presented, as well as also questions concerning chemical products and law, and the situation for the chemical industry in Sweden. Technical matters coupled with economic considerations caused the liveliest discussions. In 1887 a discussion on the control of milk was perhaps the liveliest there ever was in the society .The most scientific topic was when Otto Pettersson and the professor at the Kungliga Lantbruksakademien (Royal Academy of Agriculture) in Stockholm L. F. Nilson presented their analysis of beryllium in September 1886. 

On the establishment of the Carolinian Medico-Chirurgical Institute in Stockholm he was released from teaching medicine and surgery, but continued to lecture on chemistry and pharmacy he gave up his medical practice to get more time for scientific work. In 1808 he was elected an ordinary member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1818 he became a joint... 

Pierre Joseph Macquer (Paris 9 October 1718-15 February 1784), M.D. Paris 1742, professor of chemistry in the Jardin du Roi (1771), had from 1757 collaborated with Baume in giving courses in a private laboratory. He entered the Academic in 1745 at the age of 27 and was later a member of the Academies of Stockholm, Turin, and Philadelphia (he was not F.R.S.). Condorcet s idea that he was descended from an old Scots family of Ker, who left the country with the Stuarts, was dismissed by Thomson another suggestion is that his ancestors were an Irish family of Maguire who went to France with James II in 1689. ... 

The portrait in Fig. 17 is from a medal struck in 1789 by the Swedish Academy of Sciences it is the frontispiece in Scherer s Allgemeines Journal der Chemiej 1801, v, and Z.phys. Chem.y 1897, xxiv. The posthumous portrait by Falander (Fig. 18) shows him in later life, and Zekert says it is not very satisfactory. The statue of Scheele in Stockholm depicted in Nordenskiold is based on a projected one shown in Cleve s memoir. ... 

The scientific impact of Heyrovsky s work was such that he was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize, At several occasions (1938, 1939, 1948) the nomination was unsuccessful because of geopolitical factors. But on September 26, 1959 it was officially announced by the Czechoslovak radio that the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm awarded Jaroslav Heyrovsky the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The vice-president of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, V. Laufberger (a physiologist), and the Chairman of the Chemistry Division of the Academy, R. Brdicka, congratulated Professor Heyrovsky (Figure 15). Later in Stockholm, J. Heyrovsky received the Prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. 

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833 and died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10,1896. When his will was read it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was entrusted with the nomination and selection of Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry. The awards are presented every year on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel s death, 10th December. 

In November 1751 he presented a paper to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, a report with the title White Gold, or the seventh Metal. Scheffer began with the statement In 1750, in June I got from Herr Assessor Rudenskold a dark sand, which the Assessor had got in Spain with the information that it comes from West India. ... 

In 1911 Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. At the ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, 1911, the President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences expressed the opinion that Marie Curie s achievements deserved an additional, and chemical, recognition ... 

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