Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig
ForMemRS
Liebig c. 1866
Born(1803-05-12)12 May 1803
Darmstadt, Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Died18 April 1873(1873-04-18) (aged 69)
Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Education
Known for
See list
    • Agricultural chemistry
    • Analytical chemistry
    • Biochemistry
    • Organic chemistry
    • Benzilic acid rearrangement
    • Benzoin condensation
    • Barking dog reaction
    • Chloral
    • Combustion analysis
    • Fermentation theory
    • Infant formula
    • Isocyanic acid
    • Kynurenic acid
    • Liebig condenser
    • Liebig process
    • Liebig's law of the minimum
    • Liebig's theory of acids
    • Liebig–Pasteur dispute
    • Kaliapparat
    • Marmite
    • Meat extract
    • Melamine
    • Organocatalysis
    • Plant nutrition
    • Sarcosine
    • Silvering
    • Tyrosine
    • Yeast extract
AwardsAlbert Medal (1869)
Pour le Mérite (1851)
Légion d'honneur (1850)
Copley Medal (1840)
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
Institutions
  • University of Giessen
  • University of Munich
Doctoral advisorKarl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner
Doctoral students
See list
    • Carl Schmidt
    • Nikolay Zinin
    • Victor Regnault
    • Carl von Voit
    • Hermann von Fehling
    • Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
    • August von Hofmann
    • Lyon Playfair
    • Emil Erlenmeyer
    • Heinrich Ritthausen
    • Moritz Traube
    • Adolph Strecker
    • Wilhelm Henneberg
Other notable students
See list
    • August Kekulé
    • Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet
    • Augustus Voelcker[1]
    • Julius Eugen Schlossberger
    • Carl Vogt
    • Max Joseph von Pettenkofer

Justus Freiherr von Liebig[a] (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873)[2] was a German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biological chemistry; he is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry.[3] As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the most outstanding chemistry teachers of all time.[4] He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which states that plant growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available.[5] He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts,[6] and with his consent a company, called Liebig Extract of Meat Company, was founded to exploit the concept; it later introduced the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube. He popularized an earlier invention for condensing vapors, which came to be known as the Liebig condenser.[7]

  1. ^ Kumar, Prakash (2012). Indigo plantations and science in colonial India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-107-02325-3. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  2. ^ Priesner, Claus (1985). "Liebig, Justus Freiherr von". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 14. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 497–501. (full text online).
  3. ^ Royal Society of London (1 January 1875). "Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 24: xxvii–xxxvii. Bibcode:1875RSPS...24D...1. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  4. ^ Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Liebig, Justus, Baron von" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  5. ^ (UNIDO), International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (1998). Fertilizer manual (3rd ed.). Boston: Kluwer Academic. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-7923-5011-8. Retrieved 6 November 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Judel, Günther Klaus (2003). Justus Liebig, Georg Giebert und der Fleischextrakt (PDF) (in German). University of Giessen.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cansler was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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