Profiles in Excellence

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Contents
Introduction
The Nobel Prize
Physics
Chemistry
Physiology or Medicine 175
Literature
261
Peace
325
Economics
403
Index
443
xi
xxi
1
89
PHYSICS I 1
1906
THOMSON, SIR JOSEPH JOHN
Nationality: British.
b. December 18, 1856,
Manchester; d. August 30, 1940,
Cambridge.
In recognition of the great merits
of his theoretical and experimental investigations
on the conduction of electricity by gases
Thomson studied at Trinity College, Cambridge
and joined the faculty of mathematics of the same
college in 1882. Between 1884 and 1919 he was
Cavendish professor of experimental physics at
Cambridge, a position that he succeeded from
Lord Rayleigh. His son G.P. Thomson also won a
Nobel Prize in physics (1937).
Thomson gave a comprehensive account of
the discharge of electricity through gases. His
experiments led to the conclusion that the current
in these discharges was carried by positively and
negatively charged particles (ions) formed by
the disruption of the chemical molecules of the
gas. He determined the nature of the electrical
particles by measuring their masses, and found
that there was a more fundamental unit than the
chemical atom – an atom of pure electricity, which
in due course came to be called as electron.
Thomson attempted to improve the technique
and use it to calculate the masses, energies and
electric charges of the other particles occurring
in electric currents through gases. This research
was important because it forecast the theory of
nuclear as well as of atomic structure. His work
was the beginning of the method of analysis now
called mass spectrometry, extensively used in oil
and other technologies.
1907
MICHELSON, ALBERT ABRAHAM
Nationality: American.
b. December 19, 1852, Strzelno,
Prussia now Strzelno, Poland;
d. May 9, 1931. Pasadena,
California.
For his optical precision instruments and the
spectroscopic and meteorological investigations
carried out with their aid
Michelson graduated from the United States
Naval Academy in mathematics and taught
science there between 1875 and 1879. After
travelling extensively in Europe and the United
States, he became professor of physics at the
Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland,
Ohio (1883–1891). He joined the faculty of
physics at the University of Chicago as its head in
1892.
The first American physicist to be awarded a
Nobel prize, Michelson made a fundamental
contribution to modern physics by providing an
accurate measurement of the speed of light with
the help of ‘interferometer’ , an instrument he
built. He also discredited the theory that light
waves were carried through space by ‘ether’. His
experiment carried out with Edward W. Morley,
is famous in scientific history, and provided the
theoretical basis for later work on relativity by
Albert Einstein. Einstein drew directly on the
results of Michelson’s experiments, using the idea
that the velocity of light is constant as his basic
premise.
1908
LIPPMANN, GAB’RIEL
Nationality: French.
b. August 16, 1845, Hollerich,
Luxemburg, France; d. July 13,
1921 at Sea.
For his method of reproducing colours
photographically based on the phenomenon of
interference
Lippmann entered Ecole Normale, but failed in his
examination, despite his ingenuity and promise in
experiments. At Heidelberg, under the influence of
Kirchhoff, he began his work on electro-capillarity,
a subject that fascinated him. He became a
professor at Sorbonne in 1883 and the director of
Laboratories of Physical Research in 1886.
2 I chemistry
1903
and his determination of their place in the periodic
system
ARRHENIUS, SVANTE AUGUST
Ramsay studied in Glasgow and then under
the German chemist Bunsen, at Heidelberg. He
served as a professor of chemistry at Bristol and
later at London.
Nationality: Swedish
b. February 19, 1859, Schloso
Wijk; d. October 2,
1927, Stockholm.
In recognition of the
extraordinary services he has rendered to the
advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic
theory of dissociation
Arrheniusis best known for his contributions to
the theory of electrolytic dissociation. The theory
deals with the behaviour of certain substances
when dissolved in water or other solvents,
particularly under the influence of an external
electric field.
Arrhenius outlined his notions of electrolytic
dissociation in his doctoral thesis, submitted in
1884. A more complete and refined version was
published three years later. According to the
theory, the fundamental particles an electrolyte
consists of are separated in water solution by
the action of water molecules. A sodium chloride
molecule, for example, breaks apart to form
sodium ions and chloride ions. The ions thus
formed are similar to atoms, except that they
carry electrical charges.
Thomson’s discovery of the electron provided
evidence of the divisible nature of atoms. The
concept of ‘charged atoms’, once so inimical
to chemical theory, was now a natural and
understandable extension of atomic theory and
this removed a major stumbling block in the way
of chemists’ acceptance of the existence of ions.
1904
RAMSAY, SIR WILLIAM
At Bristol he began his work on making the exact
measurement of gas densities. In London, he
began his famous work that explained the cause
for the difference in atomic weight of nitrogen
found in chemical compounds and the heavier
free nitrogen found in the atmosphere. Rayleigh
had demonstrated earlier that nitrogen from the
air is 0.5% denser than nitrogen made chemically.
Ramsay assumed this difference to be due to a
previously unknown heavier gas in the air and set
to work to find it.
He sparked dry air to remove oxygen, and
then passed the nitrogen repeatedly over hot
magnesium, when most of the gas was slowly
absorbed. What was left was a denser gas;
an inert new element that was named argon
that makes up less than 1% of the air. Ramsay
liberated helium from the mineral clevite next.
Examining air for further traces of new inert
gases, he, along with Travas, discovered three
more inert gases; krypton, xenon and neon. Later
in 1910 he found the sixth gas, radon which is
formed with helium by the radioactive decay of
the metal radium. This group of gases is now
known as the noble gases.
1905
VON BAEYER, JOHANN
FRIEDRICH WILHELM ADOLF
Nationality: German
b. October 31, 1835, Berlin; d.
August 20, 1917,Starnberg,
near Munich.
b. October 2, 1852, Glasgow; d.
July 23, 1916, Surrey, England.
In recognition of his services in the advancement
of organic chemistry and the chemical industry,
through his work on organic dyes and hydro
aromatic compounds
In recognition of his services in
the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air,
Von Baeyer, a child prodigy, made his first new
substance, the beautiful blue crystalline carbonate
Nationality: British
CHEMISTRY I 3
at the age of twelve. Student of two great masters
of the time, Bunsen and Kekule, he was more
influenced by Kekule and started his work on
organic chemistry. He took his PhD in 1858 at
Berlin and taught organic chemistry at a Berlin
technical college for 12 years before moving to
Strasbourg and then to Munich where he was a
professor of chemistry for 40 years.
borides and carbides of metals. He discovered
silicon carbide and made the manufacturing of
acetylene commercially feasible. He discovered
many metals such as Mb, Ta, Nb, V, Ti, W and U,
which were little known till that time.
Von Baeyer’s works included the synthesis of
indigo and the formulation of its structure. His
work on the purine group began with the studies
on uric acid, and included the synthesis of the
useful drugs, the barbiturates. His study of the
sensitively explosive polyalkynes led him to
propose his ‘strain theory’ to account for the
relative stabilities of carbocyclic rings. His other
work dealt with hydrobenzenes and terpenes.
BUCHNER, EDUARD
1906
MOISSAN, FREDINAND
FREDERIC HENRI
Nationality: French
b. September 28, 1852, Paris;
d. February 20, 1907,Paris.
In recognition of the great services rendered
by him in his investigation and isolation of the
element fluorine, and for the adoption in the
service of science of the electric furnace named
after him
The French inorganic chemist, Moissan had
his initial education at Paris and later became
professor of toxicology and inorganic chemistry
there. He began his experiments to isolate the
element fluorine in 1884 and two years later
succeeded in isolation of fluorine by electrolysis of
a solution of potassium fluoride gas at 50°C in an
apparatus made of platinum and calcium fluoride.
Fluorine was isolated at the anode as a yellow
gas.
Moissan attempted the synthesis of diamond
by crystallising carbon from molten iron under
pressure. He devised an electric furnace with a
carbon arc that gave temperatures up to 3500°C,
thereby founding a new area of chemistry. He
made synthetic gems like ruby and silicides,
1907
Nationality: German
b. May 20, 1860, Munich;
d. August 13, 1917, Romania.
For his biochemical researches
and his discovery of cell free
fermentation
Buchner lost his father at the age of twelve, and
his brother Hans (who later became a well-known
bacteriologist) made it possible to complete his
general education. In 1884, he started his studies
in chemistry with Adolf von Baeyer and published
The influence of oxygen on fermentation in
1885. After obtaining his doctoral degree from
the University of Munich (1888), he joined as a
lecturer in 1893 and started his experiments on
rupture of yeast cells. The same year, he took
over the supervision of the analytical department
of Curtius’ laboratory and established himself as a
professor in 1895. He was appointed to the chair
of General Chemistry in the Agricultural College in
Berlin where he obtained adequate assistance for
his researches.
Buchner’s research interests were twofold.
Hepursued classical organic chemistry, often
in collaboration with Curtius, in his studies of
the aliphatic diazo- compounds, especially their
reaction with benzene to give norcaradiene
derivatives.
Of more ultimate importance, however, was his
work on fermentation, partly in collaboration with
his elder brother Hans. It was during this brief
period in Tubingen that he discovered the answer
to a problem that had remained unanswered for
decades. By grinding yeast cells with sand at
controlled temperature he was able to prepare
a cell-free extract that would ferment sucrose to
ethanol, a property which he ascribed to an
4 I PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
1934
anemic patients lack a particular substance that
helps absorb B12 in their gastric juice.
MINOT, GEORGE RICHARDS
Murphy took his MD from Harvard University
(1920) and was associated with Peter Bent
Brigham Hospital in Boston from 1922. He made
special studies on diabetics and diseases of the
blood, particularly with reference to liver treatment
for pernicious anemia.
Nationality: American
b. December 2, 1855, Boston,
USA; d. February 25, 1950,
Brooklyn, USA.
MURPHY, WILLIAM PARRY
Nationality: American
b. February 6, 1892, Stoughton,
Wisconsin, USA; d. October 9,
1987, Brookline, Massachusetts,
USA.
WHIPPLE, GEORGE HOYT
Nationality: American
Following graduation (1905) Whipple trained in
Pathology for two years. He first described a rare
condition characterized by the deposition of fat in
the intestinal and mesenteric lymphatic tissues,
subsequently known as Whipple’s Disease. After
a year in the Canal Zone, studying many tropical
diseases such as anorexic dysentery, filariasis,
and black water fever, he returned to Johns
Hopkins where, from 1908 to 1914, his research
centered on the liver, jaundice, and abnormal
blood coagulation.
For their discoveries concerning liver therapy in
case anemia
In 1914, Whipple became the director of the
Hooper Foundation for Medical Research and
professor of Research Medicine at the University
of California in San Francisco. Despite the
difficulties of fitting out a new laboratory in a wartime atmosphere, he continued his studies on
bile formation in dogs, gradually extending this to
include hemoglobin production and consequently,
experimental anemia, on which he published over
200 papers.
The American physiologist Minot and his fellow
American Murphy reported the results of their
successful treatment of pernicious anemia in
1926. Minot’s earlier work on blood disorders was
continued at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital,
Boston, where he worked on the lethal disease,
pernicious anemia. He retired as the Director of
the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory in Boston.
Along with Frieda Robbins, Murphy developed an
experimental model whereby fixed quantities of
blood were removed from dogs and the influence
of various diets in the regeneration of blood cells
was studied. They found that liver, kidney, and
meat were (in that order) particularly effusive is
simulating the bone marrow to produce new red
blood cells.
Following on the works of Whipple, who had
demonstrated the control of excessive bleeding in
dogs due to anemia, Minot and Murphy injected
raw liver into patients and effectively reversed
anemia. They developed an effective liver extract
for oral consumption by patients and in 1948,
isolated vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamine), a
therapeutic anti-anaemic factor from liver extracts.
Subsequent research has revealed that pernicious
Liver expiree has already been suggested by
Hopei in 1918 as particularly effective in the
treatment of pernicious anemia in human beings,
Hopper’s findings were neglected, but following
Whipple’s reports, two Harvard physicians,
George Minot and William Murphy began in 1926
to systematically investigate the use of liver and
other foodstuffs in the treatment of pernicious
anemia.
b. August 28, 1878, Ashland,
New Hampshire, USA; d.
February 2, 1976, New York,
USA.
PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE I 5
For these researches, Whipple, Minot and
Murphy shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology
or Medicine in 1934. The relationship between
pernicious anemia and vitamin B12 deficiency
was subsequently elucidated by other workers.
The bile pigments were always of interest to
Whipple but he also made important contributions
to our knowledge of the blood proteins; to the
mechanism of blood clot formation; and to the
pathology of a genetic disorder which leads to
anemia and other sequelae found in people of
Mediterranean extraction, it was first named
thalassemia by Whipple in his classic (1932)
description of its pathology.
1935
SPEMANN, HANS
Nationality: German
b- June 27, 1869, Stuttgart,
Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany;
d. September 12, 1941,
Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany.
For his discovery of organizer effect in embryonic
development
Spemann began his experiments with eggs
of newts since the eggs of these small lizardlike animals closely followed that of the other
vertebrates, including man, in their development.
The basic problem that he was trying to tackle
was about how cells and tissues differentiate
during growth.
Spemann demonstrated that, by grafting tissue
from one area of the developing embryo to
another, the transplanted section can transfer
its organizing power to its host’s embryo. He
named this inducing bit of tissue “the organizer.”
This discovery led to the conclusion that the
specialization of the cells could be explained as
an action of a special group of cells.
The brilliant work and deduction of Spemann is
especially significant since he did not know when
he was operating so delicately on newts and
salamanders that each cell carries a complete
master plan for the whole individual and for all the
specialized proteins needed to produce a newt, a
salamander, or a human.
1936
DALE, SIR HENRY HALLETT
Nationality: British
b. June 9, 1875, London, UK; d.
July 23, 1968, Cambridge, UK.
LOEWI OTTO
Nationality: German
b. June 3, 1873, Frankfurt-amMain, Germany; d. December
25, 1961, New York, USA.
For their discoveries relating to chemical
transmission of nerve impulses
Dale, the English physiologist and
pharmacologist, was educated in Medicine at
Cambridge, London and Frankfurt and joined
the Wellcome Laboratories in 1904. Along with
G. Barger, he studied the physiological action
of ergot (a potent extract from a fungal infection
of rye) and their work led to two research areas
which are linked with their names. These are
histamine, a compound released by injured cells
of in reaction to foreign protein, and acetylcholine,
the neurotransmitter. Dale’s work on acetylcholine
as an agent in the chemical transmission of nerve
impulses won him the Nobel Prize. His work also
led to the fuller understanding of allergy and
anaphylactic shock. Dale was the Director of the
National institute of Medicine (1928–1942) and
was a major spokesman for science in the UK. His
writings include Adventures in Physiology (1953)
and Autumn Gleanings (1954). He was Knighted
in 1932.
6 I LITERATURE
1901
PRUDHOMME, SULLY RENE
FRANCOIS ARMAND
Nationality: French
b. March 16, 1839, Paris; d.
September 7, 1907, Chatenay.
In special recognition of his poetic composition,
this gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic
perfection and a rare combination of the qualities
of both heart and intellect
Sully Prudhomme, the French poet, was an
important member of the Parnassians, who had,
in the mid 19th century rejected the subjectivism
of the romantics, in favour of poetry characterised
by objective restraint and verbal and technical
precision. His early verse was lyrical and
subjective. Later he changed over to epical
philosophic verse, a good example of which was
his book La Justice (1878). He was scholarly and
knowledgeable, and made a sustained effort to
transform his extensive knowledge of science and
philosophy into poetry.
1902
MOMMSEN, CHRISTIAN
MATTHIAS THEODOR
Nationality: German
b. November 30, 1817, Garding,
Germany; d. November 1, 1903,
Charolettenburg.
The greatest living master of the art of historical
writing, with special reference to his monumental
work, A history of Rome
Mommsen was educated at Kiel and graduated in
law. Influenced by his father, an assistant minister
of the Protestant communities, he became a
linguist learning many European languages like
Greek, Latin, French, English, Swedish and
Italian in addition to native German. In 1852 he
became professor of Roman law at Zurich and his
continued interest and mastery in ancient history
and politics made him a Professor at Berlin.
As a historian, he was like an artist of philology.
His three volumes on roman History, Römische
Geschichte (1854–1856) was a classic. It drew
a more colourful and realistic picture of the age
than had ever been achieved before. His other
works include History of the Roman Coinage
(1860), Roman Public Law (1876) and a book on
philology, The Dialects of Southern Italy (1850).
Mommsen reigned over German scholarship in
the second half of the last century with imperial
dignity.
1903
BJORNSON, BJORNSTJERNE
MARTINUS
Nationality: Norwegian
b. December 8, 1832, Kvikne,
Norway; d. April 26, 1910, Paris.
As a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile
poetry, which has always been distinguished by
both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare
purity of its spirit
Dramatist, novelist and poet, Bjornson was a
fore-runner of 20th century Norwegian drama,
almost of comparable status with Ibsen. A much
respected patriot and politician, he was at
different times a newspaper editor and a theatrical
manager, and often wrote on political issues. He
was the author of Norwegian national anthem,
and as much nationally minded as Ibsen was
internationally minded.
Initially he wrote historical plays in a light romantic
spirit. But subsequently he moved over to
naturalism and critical realism and wrote plays
criticizing modern society. Thus he attacked
the business morality in The Bankrupt (1875);
attacked the blindness and hypocrisy of authority
and advocated freedom of sex in A Gauntlet
(1883); and wrote about the tragedy of religious
LITERATURE I 7
1986
SOYINKA, WOLE
Nationality: Nigerian
b. 13 July 1934, Abeokuta,
Nigeria
Who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic
overtones fashions the drama of existence
Despite its tendency to distribute awards along
geopolitical lines, the Swedish Academy of
Letters waited 85 years before bestowing the
Nobel Prize for Literature on a black African. Yet
when the laurel finally passed to Wole Soyinka,
52, a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, essayist
and indefatigable polemicist, the justice seemed
more than demographic.
His works include: A Dance of the Forests (1960),
a dreamlike, ritualistic celebration of Nigerian
Independence edged with satire; Kongi’s Harvest
(1965), a biting attack on a Nkrumah-like dictator.
Soyinka has found widespread favour without
ever courting it. His writings have charged the
West with soulless materialism and his fellow
Africans with barbarism and corruption. He
has staked his art in a no-man’s-land between
conflicting cultures. In his memoir Aké: The
Years of Childhood (1981), Soyinka portrays the
divided realms of his early impressions: the beliefs
handed down by his mother and father vs. the
animism of village rituals, particularly the tradition
of the egúngún, the ancestral spirits who can be
summoned whenever their masks are displayed at
local festivals.
After graduation he worked as a teacher and
scriptwriter for London’s Royal Court Theatre,
where some of his early sketches and short plays
were performed.
But he returned to Nigeria in 1960, the same year
his homeland gained independence from British
colonial rule. Soyinka’s adult career coincides
almost exactly with the bushfire of nationalism
that swept across Africa, a phenomenon that
filled his writings with bursts of hope and despair.
He eloquently expressed the ideals of Black
Nationalism and spoke out harshly whenever
they seemed in danger of being compromised or
betrayed. In 1967 he was arrested by the Nigerian
government, charged with assisting the Biafren
rebels in their struggle for a separate state and
held for 22 months. Soyinka later recounted this
ordeal in the scathing prison memoir The Man
Died (1972).
Although he has become a folk hero in his native
country, controversies have attended his career.
Noting his fondness for Western literary forms
(all of Soyinka’s work is written in English), some
African critics have accused him of shunning his
ethnic origins.
2007
LESSING, DORIS MAY
Nationality: British
b. 22 October 1919,
Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran);
d. 17 November 2013, London,
UK.
That epicist of the female experience, who with
scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected
a divided civilisation to scrutiny
Lessing’s family immigrated to Southern Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe), to a farm near the border with
Mozambique, where she spent most of her time
in loneliness. She did her formal education in a
convent boarding school and later a girls’ school
in Salisbury. Lessing has been largely selfeducated, after she decided to end her formal
education at the age of 14. As a teenager, Lessing
left home to escape loneliness and confinement
and earned her livelihood by taking up jobs as an
office worker, nanny, telephonist, journalist, and
a typist. Her first marriage was short-lived and in
1945 she married Gottfried Lessing, a German
emigrant to Southern Rhodesia, with whom she
had a son. With a failed second marriage, Lessing
8 I LITERATURE
immigrated to England with her son in 1949 and
initiated her literary career the following year with
her first novel The Grass Is Singing that depicted
colonial Rhodesian society and apartheid. Lessing
has remained highly committed to social and
political responsibilities throughout her career and
has served as a member of the British Communist
Party from 1952 to 1956. Lessing was declared
a “prohibited alien” in 1956 when she intensely
criticised the racist policies of the South African
government, at the same time being banned from
her former homeland Southern Rhodesia.
Lessing’s early fictions were works on her
self-projection and exploration set in African
backgrounds, in accordance with the 19thcentury literary tradition. Her first collection of
short stories, This Was the Old Chief’s Country
(1951), was followed by Martha Quest, the first
of a five-volume semiautobiographical sequence
that came to be known as the Children of Violence
series (1952–1969). Lessing further enhanced her
reputation with the publication of her postmodern
novel The Golden Notebook, in 1962, a complex
and disjointed narrative of a female protagonist’s
psychological and emotional struggle to regain the
sense of fulfilment and self-worth.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Lessing published
more-experimental fictions such as Briefing
for a Descent into Hell (1971); The Summer
Before the Dark (1973); and The Memoirs of a
Survivor (1974). During this time she embraced
the ideology of Sufism, especially the writings
of the Indian-born mystic Idries Shah, which
changed her perspective of the world as well
as her artistic sensibility. Between 1979 and
1983 Lessing produced a five-volume sciencefiction series with the collective title Canopus in
Argos. This was followed by The Diary of a Good
Neighbour (1983) and If the Old Could… (1984),
both written under the pseudonym Jane Somers.
Later fiction included The Good Terrorist (1985),
Love, Again (1996), The Sweetest Dream (2001),
The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter,
Griot and the Snow Dog (2005), and The Cleft
(2007). Notable works of nonfiction included
African Laughter (1992), a bittersweet account
of revisiting independent Zimbabwe; A Small
Personal Voice (1994); and Time Bites (2004). In
her autobiography in two volumes Under My Skin
(1994) and Walking in the Shade (1997) Lessing
recalls her life and describes scenes of England in
the last days of the empire.
PEACE I 9
1901
DUNANT, JEAN HENRI
Nationality: Swiss
b. May 8, 1828, Geneva; d.
October 30, 1910, Heiden,
Switzerland.
For founding the International Committee of
Red Cross Society and initiating the Geneva
Convention
Dunant was an eyewitness of the battle of
Solferino in 1859. He published an appeal for,
and organised emergency aid services for the
wounded. He proposed the formation of voluntary
relief societies to prevent and alleviate the
sufferings caused by war and natural disasters.
This led to the organisation of the Red Cross,
which he founded in 1864, for which he won the
Nobel Prize. Also the first Geneva Convention
was the result of his efforts.
Dunant’s negligence in business led to
bankruptcy and he left Geneva in 1867 to
live a life of poverty and obscurity until he
was ‘rediscovered’ by a news paper in 1895.
He continued to work for abolition of slavery,
international arbitration and disarmament. The
1901 Nobel Prize was in recognition of his efforts
on behalf of all these and for his Red Cross work.
PASSY, FREDERIC
Nationality: French
b. May 20, 1822, Paris; d. June
12, 1912, Neuilly.
For founding a French Peace
Society
Passy began his career as a lawyer. His concern
for the peaceful settlement of differences between
capital and labour and between nations led him to
found the International and Permanent League of
Peace in 1867, later known as the French Society
for Arbitration Among Nations. He served in the
Peace Society as a permanent secretary for over
two decades. For these efforts he shared the first
Nobel Prize with Dunant.
With Sir William Cremer Passy established
the Inter Parliamentary Union in 1889. He was
elected to the Academic des Sciences Morales
in 1877 and was a member of the Chamber of
Deputies (1881–1889).
1902
DUCOMMUN, ÉLIE
Nationality: Swiss
b. February 19, 1833, Geneva;
d. December 7, 1906, Bern.
For his work as honorary secretary of the
International Peace Bureau
Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist, eloquent
lecturer, business executive, steadfast advocate
of peace, was born in Geneva as a son of a clock
maker. After completing his early studies at the
age of seventeen, he became a tutor to a wealthy
family in Saxony and remained there for three
years, by which time he became an expert in
the German language. He began his journalistic
career in 1855 as an editor of a political journal,
the Revue de Gene’ve and was in one way or
another connected to journalistic enterprises
for the rest of his life. Moving to Bern in 1865
he founded the radical journal Der Fortschritt
or Progress; edited Helvetie (1871–1872); and
from 1868 edited Les États – Unis d’Europe, a
periodical of the International League of Peace
and Freedom.
Ducommun was also a prominent political figure
and was a member of the Grand Council for nine
years in Geneva becoming vice-chancellor in
1857 and chancellor of state in Geneva in 1962.
10 I ECONOMICS
1969
FRISCH, RAGNAR KITTIL
ANTON
Nationality: Norwegian
b. March 3, 1895, Oslo, Norway;
d. January 31, 1973, Oslo.
For having developed and applied dynamic
models for the analysis of economic processes
Frisch studied at the University of Oslo and
obtained his Ph.D. from there in 1926. He
served as a professor in social economy and
statistics at the same university from 1931 until
his retirement in 1971. Frisch’s pioneering work
in early thirties involved a dynamic formulation
of the theory of cycle and had led a number of
theoretical investigations concerning production,
economic planning and national accounting.
His contributions were significant in establishing
basic concepts on models of whole economics,
production, consumer behaviour, index numbers
and planning. He was before his time in the
building of mathematical models and his
statistical and mathematical methodologies
have applications in areas other than economics
also. He was instrumental in establishing the
Econometric society in 1930 and was the chief
editor of its journal, Econometrica, until 1955.
He also served as advisor to various developing
countries, including Egypt and India.
Fischer’s publications include Maxima and
Minima – Theory and Economic Application
(1966), Economic Planning Studies (1976) and
New Methods of Measuring Marginal Utility
(1978).
TINBERGEN, JAN
Nationality: Dutch
b. April 12, 1903, The Hague,
The Netherlands; d. June 9,
1994, The Netherlands.
For having developed and applied dynamic
models for the analysis of economic processes
Tinbergen was born in The Hague and graduated
from the University of Leiden and obtained his
Ph.D. in 1929. He worked with the Central Bureau
of Statistics, The Netherlands, between 1929
and 1945, with a brief two year stint (1936–1938)
at the League of Nations Secretariat. He was
the Director, Central Planning Bureau between
1945 and 1955 and taught for a very long period
at the Universities of Leiden (1933–1973) and
The Netherlands (1973–1975). In addition to
serving as advisor to many governments, he
was Chairman of the United Nations Committee
for Development Planning in 1965. Tinbergen,
along with Frisch, worked to lend economic
theory a mathematical stringency, and to render
it in a form that permits empirical quantification
for investment and consumption expenditure,
produced a wave movement with wavelength of 4
to 8 years and he could demonstrate how these
wave movements became permanent and uneven
rather realistic manner. Both of them, with the
support of macroeconomic analysis, constructed
theories for stabilization policy and long term
economic planning, with a view particularly to the
problems of the developing countries and made
fundamental analysis of the theoretical basis of
rational decision-making in the field of economic
policy.
During his impressive career, he worked with
statistical models of economics, the mathematical
analysis of economic cycles, and several other
theories on income distribution, economic growth,
economic planning and economic development.
Tinbergen’s publications include An Economic
Approach to Business Cycle Theories (1937),
Statistical Testing of Business Cycle Theories
(1939), On The Theory of Economic Policy (1952)
and Economic Principles and Design (1956). He
is the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen, the 1973
Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine and
one of the founders of Behavioural Sciences.
CHEMISTRY I 15