Victor Moritz Goldschmidt
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Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (27 January 1888 in Zürich – 20 March 1947 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mineralogist considered (together with Vladimir Vernadsky) to be the founder of modern geochemistry and crystal chemistry, developer of the Goldschmidt Classification of elements.


Early life and education

Goldschmidt was born in Zürich, Switzerland on 27 January 1888. His father,
Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt, also Heinrich Jakob Goldschmidt (12 April 1857, in Prague, Austria-Hungary – 20 September 1937, in Oslo, Norway), was a Jewish Austrian chemist who spent most of his career working in Norway. He studied chemistry at th ...
, (1857–1937) was a physical chemist at the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum and his mother, Amelie Koehne (1864–1929), was the daughter of a lumber merchant. They named him Viktor after a colleague of Heinrich,
Victor Meyer Viktor Meyer (8 September 18488 August 1897) was a German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic chemistry. He is best known for inventing an apparatus for determining vapour densities, the Viktor Meyer apparatus, and f ...
. His father's family was Jewish back to at least 1600 and mostly highly educated, with rabbis, judges, lawyers and military officers among their numbers. As his father's career progressed, the family moved first to Amsterdam in 1893, to Heidelberg in 1896, and finally to Kristiania (later Oslo), Norway in 1901, where he took over the physical chemistry chair at the university. The family became Norwegian citizens in 1905. Goldschmidt entered the University of Kristiana (later the University of Oslo) in 1906 and studied inorganic and physical chemistry, geology,
mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
, physics,
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, zoology and botany. He secured a fellowship for his doctoral studies from the university at the age of 21 (1909). He worked on his thesis with the noted geologist Waldemar Christofer Brøgger and obtained his Norwegian doctor’s degree when he was 23 years old (1911). For his dissertation titled ''Die Kontaktmetamorphose im Kristianiagebiet'' ("The Contact Metamorphism in the Kristiania Region"), the Norwegian Academy of Sciences awarded him the Fridtjof Nansen award in 1912. The same year he was made Docent (Associate Professor) of
Mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
and Petrography at the university.


Career

In 1914 Goldschmidt applied for a professorship in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
and was offered the position. To entice him to stay, the University of Kristiania persuaded the government to establish a mineralogical institute with a professorship for him. In 1929 Goldschmidt was appointed the chair of
mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
in Göttingen, and he hired
Reinhold Mannkopff Reinhold Mannkopff (18 May 1894 – 9 April 1978) was a German experimental physicist who specialized in spectroscopy. In 1939, he was a member of the first Uranium Club, the German nuclear energy project. After World War II, he was the secre ...
and Fritz Laves as his assistants. However, after the rise of the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
to power, he became unhappy with the treatment of non-Aryans like himself (although the university treated him well) and he resigned in 1935 and returned to Oslo. In 1937, he was invited by the Royal Society of Chemistry to give the Hugo Müller lecture. On 9 April 1940 the Germans invaded Norway. On 26 October 1942 Goldschmidt was arrested at the orders of the German occupying powers as part of the persecution of Jews in Norway during World War II. Taken to the
Berg concentration camp Berg interneringsleir (Berg internment camp) was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Establishment The camp at Berg ...
, he became seriously ill and after a stay in a hospital near Oslo, he was released on 8 November, only to be rearrested on 25 November. However, as he was on the pier and about to be deported to
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, he was freed because some colleagues had persuaded the chief of police that his scientific expertise was essential to the state. Goldschmidt soon fled to
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. Goldschmidt was flown to England on 3 March 1943 by a British intelligence unit, and provided information about technical developments in Norway. After a short period of uncertainty about his future status, he was assigned to the
Macaulay Institute for Soil Research The Macaulay Institute, formally the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and sometimes referred to simply as The Macaulay, is a research institute based at Aberdeen in Scotland, which is now part of the James Hutton Institute. Its work cov ...
(in Aberdeen) of the
Agricultural Research Council The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) was a British Research Council responsible for funding and managing scientific and technological developments in farming and horticulture. History The AFRC was formed in 1983 from its predecessor, ...
. He participated in discussions about the German use of
raw materials A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...
and production of heavy water. He attended open meetings in Cambridge, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and lectured at the
British Coal Utilisation Research Association British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) was a non-profit association of industrial companies, incorporated 23 April 1938 and dissolved 24 February 2015. History It was founded in 1938, with an assured income of £25000 per year for ...
on the presence of rare elements in
coal ash Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when de ...
. His British professional associates and contacts included
Leonard Hawkes Leonard Hawkes FRS (6 August 1891 – 29 October 1981) was a British geologist. Awarded the Murchison Medal in 1946 and the Wollaston Medal in 1962. He was head of the geology department at Bedford College, London file:Bedford College in Yor ...
, C E Tilley and
W H Bragg Sir William Henry Bragg (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was an English physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman who uniquelyThis is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel ...
,
J D Bernal John Desmond Bernal (; 10 May 1901 – 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. He published extensively on the history of science. In addition, Bernal wrote popular book ...
, Dr W G (later Sir William) Ogg. Goldschmidt moved from Aberdeen to Rothamsted, where he was popular and nicknamed ‘Goldie’. However, he wanted to go back to Oslo – not welcomed by all Norwegians – and returned there on 26 June 1946, but died soon after, at age 59.


Scientific work

For his thesis, Goldschmidt studied the Oslo graben, a valley formed by the downward displacement of a block of land along faults on each side. The region had recently been mapped by Brøgger. In the Permian, magmas intruded into the older rocks, heating the surrounding rock. This resulted in mineralogical changes known as contact metamorphism, resulting in a fine-grained class of rocks known as hornfels. Goldschmidt made a systematic study of the hornfels. He showed that, of the minerals to be found in the hornfels, only certain ''associations'' occurred. For example, andalusite could be associated with cordierite but never with hypersthene. From his data on the hornfels, Goldschmidt deduced a ''mineralogical phase rule''. It is a special case of the Gibbs' phase rule for phases in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other, which states that :C - P = F - 2, where is the minimum number of chemical components, is the number of phases, and is the number of
degrees of freedom Degrees of freedom (often abbreviated df or DOF) refers to the number of independent variables or parameters of a thermodynamic system. In various scientific fields, the word "freedom" is used to describe the limits to which physical movement or ...
(e.g., temperature and pressure) that can vary without changing or . As an example, the chemical compound Al2SiO5 can occur naturally as three different minerals: andalusite, kyanite and sillimanite. There is a single component (), so if all three minerals coexist (), then . That is, there are no degrees of freedom, so there is only one possible combination of pressure and temperature. This corresponds to the triple point in the
phase diagram A phase diagram in physical chemistry, engineering, mineralogy, and materials science is a type of chart used to show conditions (pressure, temperature, volume, etc.) at which thermodynamically distinct phases (such as solid, liquid or gaseous ...
. If the same mineral association is found in several rocks over some region, it must have crystallized at a range of temperatures and pressures. In that case, must have been at least 2, so :C \geq P. This expresses Goldschmidt's mineralogical phase rule: the number of phases is no greater than the number of components. In the early 20th century,
Max von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. In addition to his scientific endeavors with cont ...
and
William L. Bragg Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallography, X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law, Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for t ...
showed that X-ray scattering could be used to determine the structures of crystals. In the 1920s and 1930s, Goldschmidt and associates at Oslo and Göttingen applied these methods to many common minerals and formulated a set of rules for how elements are grouped. Goldschmidt published this work in the series ''Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente'' eochemical Laws of the Distribution of Elements'.


Bibliography

The majority of Goldschmidt's publications are in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
or Norwegian. His English textbook, ''Geochemistry'', was edited and published posthumously in 1954. A complete list of his bibliography is compiled elsewhere.


Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Papers

* * * * * * * * *


Awards

*Goldschmidt was created a Knight of the
Order of St. Olav The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...
in 1929. *While at the
Macaulay Institute The Macaulay Institute, formally the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and sometimes referred to simply as The Macaulay, is a research institute based at Aberdeen in Scotland, which is now part of the James Hutton Institute. Its work covers ...
, Goldschmidt was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, given an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Aberdeen and awarded the Wollaston Medal, the highest honor of the Geological Society of London. *The mountain ridge
Goldschmidtfjella Goldschmidtfjella is a mountain in Oscar II Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It forms a 6 kilometer long nunatak in the glacier Osbornebreen, north of the head of St. Jonsfjorden, and reaches an altitude of 581 meters. The mountain is named after geol ...
in
Oscar II Land Oscar II Land is the land area between Isfjorden and Kongsfjorden on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The long glacier Sveabreen divides Oscar II Land from James I Land. The area is named after Oscar II of Sweden Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January ...
at
Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...
is named after him. *The mineral goldschmidtite (KNbO3) was named in his honour (IMA2018-034). *The V. M. Goldschmidt Medal is awarded annually by
The Geochemical Society The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Co ...


See also

* Goldschmidt classification * Goldschmidt Tolerance Factor * Lanthanide contraction


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Goldschmidt Conference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldschmidt, Victor 1888 births 1947 deaths 20th-century scientists 20th-century chemists 20th-century Norwegian people Berg concentration camp survivors Bredtveit concentration camp survivors Foreign Members of the Royal Society Jewish chemists Norwegian geochemists Norwegian Jews Norwegian people of Czech descent Scientists from Zürich Swiss Jews Wollaston Medal winners University of Oslo alumni University of Oslo faculty University of Göttingen faculty Rothamsted Experimental Station people Geochemists