Paul Walden

Paul Walden was a Russian and LatvianGerman chemist known for his work in stereochemistry and history of chemistry. In particular he invented the stereochemical reaction known as Walden inversion and synthesized the first roomtemperature ionic liquid, ethylammonium nitrate.

Walden was born in Rozula in presentday Stalbe parish, Prgauja municipality, Latvia in a large peasant family. At the age of four, he lost his father and later his mother. Thanks to financial support from his two older brothers who lived in Riga Walden managed to complete his education first graduated with honors from the district school in the town of Csis , and then from the Riga Technical High School . In December 1882, he enrolled into the Riga Technical University and became seriously interested in chemistry. In 1886, he published his first scientific study on the color evaluation of the reactions of nitric and nitrous acid with various reagents and establishing the limits of sensitivity of the color method to detection of nitric acid. In April 1887, he was appointed a member of the Russian PhysicoChemical Society. During this time, Walden started his collaboration with Wilhelm Ostwald that has greatly influenced his development as a scientist. Their first work together was pub

Source: Wikipedia