Theodor Svedberg (30 August 1884 – 25 February 1971) was a Swedish chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his research on colloids and proteins using an ultracentrifuge. Svedberg worked at Uppsala University from the mid-1900s until the late 1940s. At Uppsala, he began as a docent and later became the head of the university's physical chemistry department in 1912. After leaving Uppsala in 1949, Svedberg led the Gustaf Werner Institute until 1967. In addition to his 1926 Nobel Prize, Svedberg was named a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1944 and joined the National Academy of Sciences in 1945.

Early life and education

Svedberg was born on August 30, 1884, in Valbo, Sweden. His parents were Augusta Alstermark and Elias Svedberg. As a child, he developed an interest in botany and other areas of science. During grammar school, he performed scientific experiments and gave demonstrations in the laboratory. For higher education, he joined a chemistry program at Uppsala University in the early 1900s. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905, his master's degree in 1907, and his Ph.D. in 1908.

Career

In 1905, Svedberg began his scientific work at Uppsala University as an assistant chemist. In 1907, he became a chemistry docent at the university, and in 1912, he was named head of the physical chemistry department. Svedberg remained at Uppsala University in this role until 1949. During the early 1920s, he also briefly taught at the University of Wisconsin. After leaving Uppsala, he led the Gustaf Werner Institute from 1949 to 1967.

Research

Svedberg's research on colloids helped prove the ideas about Brownian motion proposed by Albert Einstein and the Polish scientist Marian Smoluchowski. While working on this, he created the method of analytical ultracentrifugation and showed how useful it was for helping scientists tell different pure proteins apart.

Awards and honours

The unit svedberg (symbol S), a unit of time equal to 10 seconds or 100 femtoseconds, is named after him, as well as The Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala.

Svedberg's candidacy for the Royal Society reads:

Svedberg was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1941. After becoming a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1944, Svedberg was named to the National Academy of Sciences in 1945. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1948. During the 1910s and 1920s, Svedberg received the Björkénska priset three times from Uppsala University for his contributions to science in Sweden. From the Franklin Institute, Svedberg was given the Franklin Medal in 1949 for his work with the ultracentrifuge.

Death and personal life

On February 25, 1971, Svedberg passed away in Kopparberg, Sweden. He was married four times and had twelve children in total. His wife at the time of his death lived until 2019. He was a Lutheran.