Justus Liebig

Familiar Letters on Chemistry (Dodo Press) Justus Liebig

Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He is known as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his discovery of nitrogen as an essential plant nutrient, and his formulation of the Law of the Minimum. In Autumn 1822 Liebig went to study in Paris. He worked in the private laboratory of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. He founded and edited from 1832 the journal Annalen der Chemie, which became the leading German-language journal of Chemistry. He was also one of the first chemists to organize a laboratory as we know it today. His novel method of organic analysis made it possible for him to direct the analytical work of many graduate students. His works include: Researches on the Chemistry of Food (1848), Handbook of Organic Analysis (1853) and Relations of Chemistry to Agriculture (1855).