Herbert Freundlich

Vocation

Notable

German chemist whose main works dealt with the coagulation and stability of colloidal solutions. His work is of continuing importance, with his 1906 paper "Over the adsorption in solution" becoming highly cited at the beginning of the 21st century. His father was German of Jewish descent, and his mother (Finlay) was from Scotland. His younger brother was Erwin Finlay Freundlich (1885–1964). He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from 1919 until 1933, when the racial policies of the Nazi party demanded the dismissal of non-Aryans from senior posts. In 1934 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Emigrating to England, Freundlich accepted a guest professorship at University College London. Five years later, he accepted a professorship at the University of Minnesota. He died in Minneapolis two years later, on 30 March 1941, aged 61. His most prominent student was Robert Havemann who became a well known colloid chemist of the German Democratic Republic. Link to Wikipedia biography