Karl Albert Hasselbalch (; 1 November 1874 – 19 September 1962) was a Danish physician and chemist known for his work on the

Henderson–Hasselbalch equation In chemistry and biochemistry, the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation :\ce = \ceK_\ce + \log_ \left( \frac \right) relates the pH of a chemical solution of a weak acid to the numerical value of the acid dissociation constant, ''K''a, of acid and th ...

Early life and education

Hasselbalch was born in Åstrup, near

Hjørring Hjørring () is a town on the island of Vendsyssel-Thy at the top of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Hjørring Municipality in the North Jutland Region. The population is 25,644 (ac ...

, Denmark on 1 November 1874. Hasselbalch received his medical degree in 1898 and his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1899 for his thesis on the respiratory metabolism in the chicken embryo.

Career

Hasselbalch was a pioneer in the use of pH measurement in medicine (with

Christian Bohr Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr (1855–1911) was a Danish physician, father of the physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, as well as the mathematician and football player Harald Bohr and grandfather of another physicist and Nobel lau ...

, father of

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...

), and he described how the affinity of blood for oxygen was dependent on the concentration of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

. He was also first to determine the pH of blood. In 1916, he converted the 1908 equation of

Lawrence Joseph Henderson Lawrence Joseph Henderson (June 3, 1878, Lynn, Massachusetts – February 10, 1942, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a physiologist, chemist, biologist, philosopher, and sociologist. He became one of the leading biochemists of the early 20th centu ...

to logarithmic form, which is now known as the

References

Danish scientists 1874 births 1962 deaths {{Denmark-scientist-stub