Dutch chemist Jacobus Hendricus van’t Hoff (1852–1911), the winner of the first Nobel Prize in chemistry(1901), pioneered the study of molecular structure and stereochemistry. Van’t Hoff proposed that the concept of an asymmetrical carbon atom explained the existence of numerous isomers that had baffled the chemists of the day. Van’t Hoff’s work gave eventual rise to stereochemistry when he correctly described the existence of a relationship between a molecule’s optical properties and the presence of an asymmetrical carbon atom.

The stereochemistry of carbon is important in all biological processes. Stereochemistry is also important in geology, especially mineralogy, with dealing with silicon based geochemistry.

In 1877, Hermann Kolbe, one of the best organic chemist of the time wrote:

“Not long ago, I expressed the view that the lack of general education and of through training in chemistry was one of the reasons of the causes of the deterioration of chemical research

in Germany…..Will anyone to whom my worries seem exaggerated please read, if he can, a recent memoir by a Herr van’t Hoff on “The Arrangement of Atoms in Space”, a document crammed to the hilt with the outpouring of childish fantasy…This Dr. J. H. van’t Hoff, employed by the Veterinary College at Utrecht, has, so it seems, no taste for accurate chemical research. He finds it more convenient to mount his Pegasus (evidently taken from the stables of the Veterinary College) and to announce how, on his bold flight to Mount Parnassus, he saw the atoms arranged in in space.”

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