Fritz Haber: December 9, 1868 January 29, 1934

Fritz Haber (1868-1934) was a German physical chemist, Nobel laureate and f oreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His greatest accompli shment in science was the development of a practical method to prepare nitr ogen from air (nitrogen fixation or Haber-Bosch process). While working on the toxicity of war gases, he formulated 'Haber's rule', also known as C x T = constant in order to characterize the toxicity of an inhalant. Between 1919 and 1933, he was one of the leading figures in revitalizing science in Germany. At his institute in Berlin worked such luminaries as Albert Einst ein, Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn. His last paper described what became known as the 'Haber-Weiss reaction'. After his death he was for a long time forg otten - by the Nazis because he was Jewish and after World War II by the Al lies because of his work on war gases in World War I. And yet he was one of the truly great modern scientists, not only because of his science, but al so because of the role he played in science politics and policies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.