https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Henricus_van_%27tHoff
Jacobus Henriks van’t Hoff Jr. Born on 30 August 1852 in Rotterdam as the son of a doctor, he was interested in science and nature from an early age, was a frequent participant in botanical excursions, and his openness to philosophy and passion for poetry was evident in his early years of school. Against his father's objection, he went on to study chemistry.
He was the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His pioneering work contributed to the discovery of contemporary theories of chemical affinity, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, and chemical thermodynamics. Van't Hoff formulated the theory of carbon tetrahedrons in his 1874 pamphlet, laying the foundations for stereochemistry, describing the phenomenon of optical activity, assuming that the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and their neighbors are directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron. He shares the credit of the French chemist Joseph Le Bel, who independently came up with the same idea. In 1875, he predicted the correct structures of allen and cumulene and their axial chirality. He is also widely regarded as one of the creators of physical chemistry.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1901/hoff/diploma/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Henricus_van_%27tHoff
In 1884, van't Hoff published a study of chemical kinetics entitled Études de Dynamique chimique ("Studies of Chemical Mechanics"). He described new methods of using graphs to determine the sequence of reactions and applying the laws of thermodynamics to chemical equilibrium. He also introduced a modern concept of chemical affinity. In 1886 he showed a similar behavior of diluted solutions and gases. In 1887, he co-founded the Journal of Physical Chemistry with German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald. He worked on Svante Arrhenius' theory of dissociation of electrolytes and published in 1889 the physical reliability of the Arrhenius equation. In 1896 he was appointed professor at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. His work on the salt deposits in Stasfurt contributed to the development of the Prussian chemical industry; he died on 1 March 1911.
