Alfred Werner:
Alfred Werner was a Swiss chemist and Nobel laureate.
Birth:
December 12, 1866 in Mulhouse, Alsace.
Death:
November 15, 1919 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Claim to Fame:
Alfred Werner was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work describing the linkage of complex ions around a central transition metal atom. This explained several unknown geometries of complex ions. He later used this to explain the differences between complexes with optical isomers and why they appear different from each other.
Interesting Trivia:
Alfred Werner was the first inorganic chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The next inorganic chemist was Ernst Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson in 1973.
