The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1969
Derek Barton, Odd Hassel
Odd Hassel was born in Kristiania
(now Oslo), Norway, I7 May, 1897. His father was Ernst Hassel, a
physician who specialized in gynaecology, his mother Mathilde
née Klaveness.
In 1915 he entered the University of his native town where he
studied mathematics and physics with chemistry as his chief
subject and graduated as a cand. real. in 1920. After a year of
leisure in France and Italy he went to Germany in the autumn of
1922 where he first spent more than half a year in Munich in the
laboratory of Professor K. Fajans. Work on the sensibilisation of
silver halides by organic dyes led to the detection of what is
now termed the "adsorption indicators" After moving to Berlin
Hassel worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Dahlem, carrying
out X-ray crystallographic work. During that time he obtained, on
the proposal of Fritz Haber, a
Rockefeller Fellowship. In 1924 he graduated as Dr. Phil. at the
Berlin University. From 1925 to 1926 he worked at the University
of Oslo in the capacity of "universitetsstipendiat", from 1926 to
1934 as "dosent" in physical chemistry and electrochemistry. From
1934 to 1964 he had the chair of physical chemistry in Oslo, the
first of its kind in Norway, and headed the department of
physical chemistry started in 1934.
Hassel's main interest during the first years of his teaching at
the University of
Oslo dealt with inorganic chemistry, but from 1930 onwards
his work was concentrated on problems connected with molecular
structure, particularly the structure of cyclohexane and its
derivatives and other substances containing six-membered rings
related to that of cyclohexane.
In order to supplement the experimental methods available two
additional methods not previously used in Norway were introduced;
the measurements of electric dipole moments and electron
diffraction by vapours. Sufficient experimental material had been
gathered by 1943 to allow more general conclusions regarding the
possible configurations (conformations) and the transition
between them to be drawn. A short paper had just been published
in a Norwegian journal when Hassel was arrested by Norwegian
Nazis and later taken into custody by the German occupants.
Released in November 1944 he found the institute almost deserted.
After the war experimental work could be taken up again and in
particular electron-diffraction work based on the rotating sector
method.
During the early 1950's Hassel opened a new field of structure
investigation, namely that of the charge-transfer compounds.
Compounds formed by organic electron- donor molecules like ethers
and amines and electron acceptors as halogen molecules or organic
halides had mainly been investigated by spectroscopic methods.
Information on the steric structures was scarce, however, and a
series of structure determinations was undertaken. After some
years work he was able to set up rules for the geometry of this
kind of addition compounds, and this field still remains his main
interest in structural chemistry.
Hassel holds honorary degrees from the Universities of
Copenhagen and Stockholm. He is an honorary Fellow of the Norwegian
Chemical Society and of the Chemical Society, London.
He is a Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, the Royal
Danish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the
Royal Norwegian Academy of Science. In 1964 he received the
Guldberg-Waage Medal from the Norwegian Chemical Society and the
Gunnerus Medal from the Royal Norwegian Academy of
Sciences.
He is a Knight of the Order of St. Olav.
From 1967 a lecture is given yearly by distinguished scientists
from abroad to his honour at the University of Oslo ("The Hassel
Lecture").
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate.
From Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1963-1970, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
Odd Hassel died on May 11, 1981.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1969
We are currently working on the web site. Please report errors or problems.
