John Ulric Nef was born on June 14, 1862 in Herisau, Switzerland. He was the eldest son of Johann Ulric Nef and Katherine (Mock) Nef. In 1864, his father came to the United States and was employed as superintendent of a textile factory in Housatonic, Massachussets. Four years later the family joined him and they settled on a farm near Housatonic.
John attended school at Great Barrington, four miles from his home, walking each way daily. He had one year in a high school in New York City. In 1880 he entered Harvard with the intention of studying medicine but soon became fascinated with chemistry and proved to be so brilliant a student that in 1884 he was awarded the Kirkland Traveling Fellowship. After his graduation he went to Munich and began studying at once under Adolph von Baeyer, receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1886. His thesis, entitled Ueber Benzochinoncarbonsäuren, treated of the compounds related to succinosuccinic-ethyl-ester.
In 1887 he returned to the United States as professor of chemistry at Purdue University. Two years later he went to Clark University as assistant professor of chemistry and was made acting head of the department shortly afterward, following the resignation of Professor Michael. Here he remained until 1892, when he responded to the invitation of President Harper to organize and head the department of chemistry at the University of Chicago. This position he held until his death.
As a result of his research in organic chemistry, he published thirty-seven independent articles, most of which were written in German.
He may be said to have stood for an individual school of thought in organic chemistry, a fact recognized by its separate treatment in advanced texts in this field, but he never assembled his theories of organic chemistry in a single volume, nor wrote a textbook.
As a result of his research in organic chemistry, he published thirty-seven independent articles, most of which were written in German.
He may be said to have stood for an individual school of thought in organic chemistry, a fact recognized by its separate treatment in advanced texts in this field, but he never assembled his theories of organic chemistry in a single volume, nor wrote a textbook.
He died of heart disease at Carmel, California, while traveling with his son.
His students Hedenburg and Glattfeld assembled after his death the remaining unpublished results of his researches, and published them in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, August 1917. Articles prepared in collaboration with his students appeared in the American Chemical Journal and the Journal of the American Chemical Society during the period of his active work.
Nef's pioneer work on bivalent carbon, on the fulminates, on the sugars, on the mechanism of organic reactions, and on many other subjects contributed greatly to the advance of chemical knowledge. It was his signal research at Purdue University on the structure of quinone which led to his call to Clark University. This work forms a very important part of the chemistry of dyes and is universally accepted.
Nef was small of stature, with a massive brow and bright, penetrating eyes.
He had an all-consuming and contagious love for his science. The rapidity of his thought so outdistanced the speed of his words that his students could take only sketchy notes which they would later piece out and amplify in order to get the full value of his lectures. His restless enthusiasm for the problems in which he was engrossed developed in him an appearance of brusqueness which amounted almost to impatience when the research did not progress smoothly. Back of this intellectual eagerness, however, dwelt kindly human qualities. He was by temperament intense and found his relaxation in long walks which he pursued at an uncompanionable speed.
It was at Chicago that he met Louise Bates Comstock who became one of his students, and his wife on May 17, 1898. She died March 20, 1909. To them one son was born.
