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Odd Hassel (17 May 1897 — 11 May 1981) was a Norwegian physical
chemist and Nobel Laureate.
Biography
Born in Kristiania, his parents
were Ernst Hassel, a gynaecologist, and Mathilde. In 1915, he
entered the University of Oslo where he studied
mathematics, physics and chemistry, and graduated in
1920. After taking a year off from studying, he went to Munich, Germany to work in the laboratory of Professor
Kasimir Fajans.[1] His
work there led to the detection of absorption
indicators. After moving to Berlin, he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where he began to
research X-ray crystallography.[2] He
furthered his research with a Rockefeller
Fellowship, obtained with the help of Fritz Haber. In 1924, he obtained his PhD
from the Berlin University, before moving to the University of
Oslo, where he worked from 1925 through 1964, as a professor
from 1934.[3]
Career
Back in Oslo, Hassel originally focused on inorganic chemistry,
but beginning in 1930 his work concentrated on problems connected
with molecular structure, particularly the structure of cyclohexane and its
derivatives. He introduced the Norwegian scientific community to
the concepts of the electric dipole moments and electron
diffraction. After publishing a paper on the conformations of
cyclohexane, Hassel was arrested by Norwegian Nazis
and sent to the Grini concentration camp until
1944.
Nobel
Prize
Beginning in 1950, Hassel investigated the structure of
charge-transfer compounds, and was eventually able to set up rules
for the geometry of this kind of compound. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1969,
alongside Derek
Barton.
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