Paul Walden
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Paul Walden ( lv, Pauls Valdens; russian: Павел Иванович Вальден; german: Paul von Walden; 26 July 1863 – 22 January 1957) was a
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, Latvian and
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 **Ge ...
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...
known for his work in stereochemistry and history of chemistry. In particular he invented the stereochemical reaction known as
Walden inversion Walden inversion is the inversion of a stereogenic center in a chiral molecule in a chemical reaction. Since a molecule can form two enantiomers around a stereogenic center, the Walden inversion converts the configuration of the molecule fro ...
and synthesized the first room-temperature
ionic liquid An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt in the liquid state. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as water and gasoline are predominantly made of ...
,
ethylammonium nitrate Ethylammonium nitrate or ethylamine nitrate (EAN) is a salt with formula or ()·. It is an odorless and colorless to slightly yellowish liquid with a melting point of 12 °C. This compound was described by Paul Walden in 1914, and is belie ...
.


Early life and education

Walden was born in Rozulas in present-day Stalbe parish, Pārgauja municipality, Latvia in a large Latvian peasant family. At the age of four, he lost his father and later his mother. Thanks to financial support from his two older brothers who lived in Riga (one was a merchant and another served as a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
) Walden managed to complete his education – first graduated with honors from the district school in the town of
Cēsis Cēsis (), (german: Wenden, liv, Venden, et, Võnnu, pl, Kieś) is a town in Latvia located in the northern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges above the river over ...
(1876), and then from the Riga Technical High School (1882). In December 1882, he enrolled into the
Riga Technical University Riga Technical University (RTU) ( lv, Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte) is the oldest technical university in the Baltic countries established on October 14, 1862. It is located in Riga, Latvia and was previously known as 'Riga Polytechnical Ins ...
and became seriously interested in chemistry. In 1886, he published his first scientific study on the color evaluation of the reactions of nitric and nitrous acid with various reagents and establishing the limits of sensitivity of the color method to detection of nitric acid. In April 1887, Walden was appointed a member of the Russian Physico-chemical Society. During this time, Walden started his collaboration with
Wilhelm Ostwald Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhen ...
(
Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
1909) which greatly influenced his development as a scientist. Their first work together was published in 1887 and was devoted to the dependence of the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions of salts on their molecular weight.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
br>ВАЛЬДЕН (Walden), Пауль
(in Russian)


Work in chemistry

In 1888, Walden graduated from the university with a degree in chemical engineering and continued working at the Chemistry Department as an assistant to professor C. Bischof. Under his guidance, Walden began compiling "Handbook of Stereochemistry" which was published in 1894. In preparation of this handbook, Walden had to perform numerous chemical syntheses and characterizations which resulted in 57 journal papers on stereochemistry alone, published between 1889 and 1900 in Russian and foreign journals 57 articles on the stereochemistry. He also continued his research in the field of physical chemistry, establishing in 1889 that the ionizing power of non-aqueous solvent is directly proportional to the dielectric constant. During the summer vacations of 1890 and 1891, Walden was visiting Ostwald at the
University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
and in September 1891 defended there a master thesis on the affinity values of certain organic acids. Ostwald suggested that he stay in Leipzig as a private lecturer, but Walden declined, hoping for a better career in Riga. In the summer of 1892 he was appointed assistant professor of
physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistica ...
. A year later he defended his doctorate on
osmotic Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region o ...
phenomena in sedimentary layers and in September 1894 became professor of analytical and physical chemistry at the Riga Technical University. He worked there until 1911 and during 1902–1905 was rector of the university. In 1895, Walden made his most remarkable discovery which was later named
Walden inversion Walden inversion is the inversion of a stereogenic center in a chiral molecule in a chemical reaction. Since a molecule can form two enantiomers around a stereogenic center, the Walden inversion converts the configuration of the molecule fro ...
, namely that various stereoisomers can be obtained from the same compound via certain exchange reactions involving hydrogen. This topic became the basis for his habilitation thesis defended in March 1899 at
St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter t ...
. After that, Walden became interested in
electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...
of nonaqueous solutions. In 1902, he proposed a theory of autodissociation of inorganic and organic solvents. In 1905, he found a relationship between the maximum molecular conductivity and viscosity of the medium and in 1906, coined the term "
solvation Solvation (or dissolution) describes the interaction of a solvent with dissolved molecules. Both ionized and uncharged molecules interact strongly with a solvent, and the strength and nature of this interaction influence many properties of the ...
". Together with his work on stereochemistry, these results brought him to prominence; in particular, he was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913 and 1914. Walden was also credited as a talented chemistry lecturer. In his memoirs, he wrote: "My audience usually was crowded and the feedback of sympathetic listeners gave me strength ... my lectures I was giving spontaneously, to bring freshness to the subject ... I never considered teaching as a burden". 1896 brought reforms to the Riga Technical University. Whereas previously, all teaching was conducted in German and Walden was the only professor giving some courses in Russian, from then on, Russian became the official language. This change allowed receiving subsidies from the Russian government and helped the alumni in obtaining positions in Russia. These reforms resulted in another and rather unusual collaboration of Walden with Ostwald: Walden was rebuilding the Chemistry Department and Ostwald sent him the blueprints of the chemical laboratories in Leipzig as an example. In May 1910, Walden was elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and in 1911 was invited to
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to lead the Chemical Laboratories of the academy founded in 1748, by Mikhail Lomonosov. He remained in that position till 1919. As an exception, he was allowed to stay in Riga where he had better research possibilities, but he was traveling, almost every week, by train, to St. Petersburg for the academy meetings and guidance of research. In the period 1911–1915, Walden published 14 articles in the "Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences" on electrochemistry of nonaqueous solutions. In particular, in 1914 he synthesized the first room-temperature
ionic liquid An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt in the liquid state. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as water and gasoline are predominantly made of ...
, namely
ethylammonium nitrate Ethylammonium nitrate or ethylamine nitrate (EAN) is a salt with formula or ()·. It is an odorless and colorless to slightly yellowish liquid with a melting point of 12 °C. This compound was described by Paul Walden in 1914, and is belie ...
()· with the
melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depen ...
of 12 °C. After 1915, due to the difficulties caused by the World War I, political unrest in Russia and then October Revolution, Walden had reduced his research activity and focused on teaching and administrative work, taking numerous leading positions in science. Due to the political unrest in Latvia, Walden had immigrated to Germany together. He was appointed as professor of inorganic chemistry at the
University of Rostock The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...
where he worked until retirement in 1934. In 1924 he was invited back to Riga, where he gave a series of lectures. He was offered leading positions in chemistry in Riga and in St. Petersburg, but declined. Despite his emigration, Walden retained his popularity in Russia, and in 1927 he was appointed as a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Later, he also became a member of the Swedish (1928) and Finnish (1932) Academies.


Personal life

Walden's daughter, Antonina Anna Walden (1899–1983), was a music teacher who married Finnish translator and essayist Juho August Hollo. Their son was the Finnish poet and translator Anselm Hollo.


Late years

In his late years, Walden focused on history of chemistry and collected a unique library of over 10,000 volumes. The library and his house were destroyed during the British bombing of Rostock in 1942. Walden moved to Berlin and then to
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
where he became a visiting professor of the history of chemistry at the local university. He met the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in the
French Occupation Zone The French occupation zone in Germany (, ) was one of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany after World War II. Background In the aftermath of the Second World War, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta ...
, cut off the Rostock University, which was located in the Soviet Zone, and thus left without any source of income. He survived on a modest pension arranged by German chemists, giving occasional lectures in
Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...
and writing memoirs. In 1949, he published his most well known book on "History of Chemistry". He died in
Gammertingen Gammertingen () is a town in the district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 18 km north of Sigmaringen. Geography Geographical location Gammertingen is located on the Swabian Jura in the valley of the Lauchert ...
in 1957 at the age of 93. His memoirs were published only in 1974.Volkov VA, Raskin NM, Stradynja J
New Materials for a Biography of P. Walden
Izv. Acad. Science of Latvia. SSR, 1987, No. 9; Stradynja JP, Solovyov YI Pavel Ivanovich (Paul) Walden: 1863-1957. Moscow, 1988. (in Russian)


References


Further reading

# # # # {{DEFAULTSORT:Walden, Paul 1863 births 1957 deaths People from Cēsis Municipality People from Kreis Wolmar Baltic-German people Latvian scientists Chemists from the Russian Empire Latvian chemists 20th-century German chemists Inventors from the Russian Empire 20th-century German inventors Stereochemists 19th-century Latvian people Saint Petersburg State University alumni Leipzig University alumni Riga Technical University alumni Riga Technical University faculty University of Latvia faculty Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Honorary Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences