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Victor Moritz Goldschmidt
(Zürich,
January 27,
1888 –
March 20,
1947 in
Oslo) was a
chemist considered to be the
founder of modern
geochemistry and crystal
chemistry, developer of the
Goldschmidt Classification of
elements.
Early Life & Career
Heinrich, Victor's
Father, with squirrel
Goldschmidt was born in
Zürich. His parents, Heinrich
J. Goldschmidt and Amelie Koehne
named his son after a colleague of
Heinrich, Victor Meyer. There was
a history of great scientists and
philosophers in both families. The
Goldschmidt family came to Norway
1901 when Heinrich Goldschmidt
took over a chair as Professor of
Chemistry in
Kristiania (Oslo).
Goldschmidt’s first important
contribution was within the field
of
geology and
mineralogy. His two first
larger works were his doctor
thesis Die Kontaktmetamorphose
im Kristianiagebiet and
Geologisch-petrographische Studien
im Hochgebirge des südlichen
Norwegens.
New Theories
A series of publications under
the title Geochemische
Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente
is usually referred to as the
start of geochemistry, the science
that describes the distribution of
the chemical elements in nature.
The geochemistry has not only
greatly inspired the field of
mineralogy and
geology but also theoretical
chemistry and
crystallography. Goldschmidt’s
work on atom and ion radii has
been of enormous importance for
crystallography. His work in this
area has no doubt inspired the
introduction of the Pauling
covalent, ionic, and the
Van der Waals radius.
Goldschmidt took great interest
in the technical application of
his science; the utilization of
olivine for industrial
refractory goes back to him. He
was for many years the head of the
Norwegian Committee for Raw
Material (Statens
Råstoffkomité).
Achievements
There has hardly ever been a
person in the Norwegian university
world that made such an early and
rapid career as Goldschmidt.
Without even taking the usual
exams or degrees he got a
post-doctoral fellowship from the
university already at the age of
21 (1909). He obtained his
Norwegian doctor’s degree when he
was 23 years old (1911). This is a
degree that is usually obtained at
an age of 30 to 40 years, even 50
years and more is not unusual. In
1912 Goldschmidt got the most
distinguished Norwegian scientific
award (the
Fridtjof Nansen belonning) for
his work Die
Kontaktmetamorphose im Kristiania
gebiet. The same year he was
made Docent (Associate Professor)
of
Mineralogy and
Petrography at the
University of Oslo (known at
that time as "Det
Kongelige Frederiks Universitet").
In 1914 he applied for a
professorship in
Stockholm. The selecting
committee unanimously chose
Goldschmidt for the chair. But
before the Swedish king had made
the final official approbation,
the University of Kristiania was
able to secure him a similar
chair. This was quite an unusual
procedure and speed for appointing
a professor. Usually it will take
at least two years to obtain a new
chair at a Norwegian university
and one or two years to have the
professor appointed. In
Goldschmidt’s case it seems that
all tradition of slowness was
abolished, a fact that the
University of Oslo shall always be
grateful for. In 1929 Goldschmidt
was called to the chair of
mineralogy in
Göttingen, but he returned to
Oslo in 1935.
Later Life
During the German occupation
Goldschmidt was arrested, due to
being of Jewish extraction.
However, he was freed at the
initiative of his colleagues and
the
Norwegian Resistance shortly
before a planned deportation to a
German concentration camp.
Goldschmidt later fled to Sweden
and went on to England (where some
of the Koehne family lived, and
still reside today).
After the war he returned to
Oslo again where he died, only 59
years old.
A larger work, Geochemistry,
was edited and published
posthumously in England in 1954.
References
- Victor Moritz
Goldschmidt: Father of Modern
Geochemistry by Brian Mason
(ISBN
0-941809-03X)
