Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist and scientist.
Background
One of a set of twins, Odd Hassel was born on May 17, 1897, in Kristiana (now Oslo), Norway. His father Ernst was a gynecologist. His mother, Mathilde Klaveness Hassel, raised her four sons and one daughter alone after her husband died when Odd was eight years old.
Education
While his brothers, including his twin Lars, entered law and civil engineering, Hassel chose a different route. He had disliked school except for mathematics and science. The interest he developed in chemistry during high school evolved into his major area of study at the University of Oslo, which he entered in 1915 and graduated in 1920. In 1924, he obtained his PhD from the Berlin University.
Career
After taking a year off from studying, Hassel went to Munich, Germany to work in the laboratory of Professor Kasimir Fajans. His work there led to the detection of absorption indicators. After moving to Berlin, he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where he began to do research on X-ray crystallography.
Odd furthered his research with a Rockefeller Fellowship, obtained with the help of Fritz Haber. He became a professor in 1934. His work was interrupted in October, 1943 when he and other university staff members were arrested by the Nasjonal Samling and handed over to the occupation authorities.
Odd spent time in several detention camps, until he was released in November, 1944.
Through twenty-five years of painstaking work, Odd Hassel confirmed the long-suspected three-dimensional nature of organic molecules, and his work in this field, called conformational analysis, altered the perception of chemistry.
Hassel retired from the University of Oslo in 1964, but continued to research and publish until 1971. From 1947 to 1957 Hassel was also the Norwegian editor of Acta Chimica Scandinavica.
After his twin brother died in 1980, Hassel reportedly lost his “zest for life.” After that he did not live long.
Views
Hassel rarely attended international conferences.
Quotations:
“I had been among the chemistry candidates before, but did not expect to get the prize now. It was indeed very pleasing.”
“I detest public appearances and have to think it over thoroughly.”
Membership
Hassel was a fellow of the Royal Norwegian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academies of Sciences, and the Royal Danish Academy of Science, an honorary fellow of the British Chemical Society.
Connections
Odd Hassel was never married, because “he prefered molecules,” as was noted by one of his students.