For biographical note contrihuted I,. Dr. Ralph E. Oesper, of the Uni~ e r s i of t ~Cincinnati, see page 284. Dr. Oesper also lent the photograph
here reproduced.
GEORG BREDIG* A CHEMIST achieves eminence first, from his discoveries of new materials, properties, or relationships; second, by devising new methods of research; third, by developing his students and co-workers into competent investigators. Georg Bredig, one of the outstanding physical chemists of our time, has derived lasting influence in all these ways. After passing through theorthodox'training in chemistry and physics (1886-89) at Freiburg and Berlin, he was irresistibly drawn to Leipzig, which was becoding an international center for the propagation of the new border science, physical chemistry. In 1889 Bredig enlisted in that company of brilliant young men surrounding Ostwald and soon knew that he had found the branch of chemistry most congenial to his talents. Finishing his doctorate in 1894 he rounded off his training by a year with van't Hoff in Amsterdam, followed by shorter stays with Berthelot in Paris and Arrhenius in Stockholm. Recalled to Leipzig, he acted as Ostwald's assistant until 1901, when he went to Heidelberg as professor. In 1910 he accepted a call to Zurich, but within a year he became Haber's successor as head of the Institute of Physical and Electrochemistry at Karlsruhe, a responsi-
* See frontispiece.
bility which he tilled with honor until hi retirement from academic life in 1933. The record of this active life of devotion to the cause of chemistry and education is set down in some two hundred publications. Here may be found the announcements of his discoveries significant both to chemistry and other sciences, the clarification of old difficulties, the ground work of important industrial processes, and novel and far-reaching approachesto new fields of chemical inquiry. A mere list of the main topics that have occupied h i and his students testifies to the calibre of the output of his laboratory: inorganic ferments; stereochemical asymmetric catalysis; adiabatic reaction kinetics; amphoteric electrolytes and ampholytic ions; electrochemistry; organic and inorganic catalysts; kinetics of diazo-acetic ester. He has been honored by universities and learned societies, but none of his medals, honorary memberships, and degrees are as dear to this kindly, generous, gentleman as the reverence in which he is held by his former students and collaborators, whose success he counts as no small part of his own reward.
(Contributed by Ralph E. Oesfier, Unioersity of Cincinnati.)
