Izaak Maurits Kolthoff

Father of Analytical Chemistry

University of Minnesota

Professor of Chemistry

1927-1962

“Theory Guides; Experiment Decides.”

Izaak Maurits (Piet) Kolthoff was born in Almelo, Holland, on February 11, 1894 and after nearly a century of contributions to mankind died, less than a month after his ninety ninth birthday, in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 4, 1993. He entered the University of Utrecht, Holland in 1911, where he studied for the Ph.D. with Nickolas Schoorl. Professor Schoorl had obtained his degree studying with the great J. H. van't Hoff, the first (1901) Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who with Svante Arrhenius and Wilhelm Ostwald created the discipline of Physical Chemistry. Professor Kolthoff published his first paper in 1915 on the theory of acid-base titrations using the recently developed theories of weak and strong electrolytes and Sorenson's introduction of the concept of pH. This paper is concerned with the analysis and location of the end points in the titration of phosphoric acid. On the basis of his world wide reputation, he was appointed to a one year trial appointment at the University of Minnesota by Dean Sam Lind and thus joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota in 1927. He remained in this department until his so-called retirement in 1962, publishing more than 800 papers during the "active" years of his career with an additional 150 papers appearing before his health failed. He maintained an active National Science Foundation grant until only two years before his death.

Professor Kolthoff’s research, covering a dozen areas of chemistry, focussed primarily on constructing a firm scientific foundation for Analytical Chemistry. Widely considered to be the Father of Analytical Chemistry, his research transformed Analyical Chemistry from a collection of empirical recipes and prescriptions to a fundamental branch of modern chemistry. Professor Kolthoff and his students studied acidimetry, alkalimetry, acid-base indicators, gravimetric analysis, volumetric analysis, iodometry, the theory of colloids and crystal growth thereby establishing a scientific basis for gravimetry. His work with acids and bases, in which he was the first to fully apply the Arrhenius theory (1884) of electrolytes, established the rational choice of end point indicators and transformed titrimetry from a practical art to an exacting science. He developed the theory of potentiometric analysis and potentiometric titrations, as well as conductometric titrations. When Jaroslav Heyrovsky at the Charles University (Prague, Czechoslovakia) discovered polarography (1925), for which he eventually received the Nobel Prize (1959) Kolthoff immediately recognized its scientific significance and practical importance indeed it eventually lead to methods of environmental trace metal analysis and biological sensors. He and his students especially James J. Lingane ( Ph.D. 1938 ) and Herbert A. Laitinen (Ph.D.1940) contributed most significantly to understanding and using electroanalytical methods such as polarography and ion selective electrodes.

Throughout his career he emphasized the role of chemical principles in analysis and was one of the earliest workers to understand the fundamental significance of crown ethers and their complexes. Jean Marie Lehn, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1987) for his work with crown ethers, held the innurgural I.M. Kolthoff Lecturership (1979).

In addition to his phenomenal production of research publications Professor Kolthoff wrote many books including the multi-volume monograph "Volumetric Analysis" (with Vernon Stenger, Ph.D.1933), "Polarography" with J. J. Lingane, and "Potentiometric Titrations" with H. A. Laitinen. Professor Kolthoff was also the editor-in-chief of the "Treatise on Analytical Chemistry" (nineteen volumes in two editions). His most influential book was probably "Quantitative Inorganic Analysis" with his student Ernest B. Sandell (Ph.D. 1932) who was also a faculty member at the University of Minnesota. It is widely recognized as the progenitor of all modern textbooks on Analytical Chemistry. It appeared in four editions (the last being co-authored with his Minnesota colleagues Professors Sandell, Meehan and Bruckenstein) and in six languages (including Russian and Japanese).

His myriad contributions have been recognized by his receipt of many medals, awards and memberships in learned societies throughout the world. These include the National Academy of Sciences and the Nichols Medal of the American Chemical Society. He has won the Fisher Award for Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and was the first recipient of the Kolthoff Award of the American Pharmaceutcal Association.

His work which most directly affected the general public, was in the synthetic rubber research program of the Second World War era. Due to the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia U.S. access to natural rubber was cut-off and thus during World War II the federal government established a comprehensive synthetic rubber research program in several major industrial and university research centers. Professor Kolthoff, whose family was devasted during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, quickly assembled a large research group and made major contributions to the program in order to contribute to the war effort. Professor Kolthoff and his coworkers hold several key patents related to synthetic rubber. After War World II Kolthoff was deeply engaged in humanitarian efforts and the promotion of world peace and was an early supporter of the United Nations. In these efforts he corresponded extensively with Albert Einstein, Pierre Joliot-Curie, Senator Hubert Humphrey and the wife of the late president, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. He was also an early critic of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Many of his graduate students including Sandell, Lingane and Laitinen, all of whom received both their undergraduate and graduate degrees at Minnesota, went on to successful careers in industry and academic life including: Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Illinois and other major research universities. In 1982 his scientific descendants were numbered at more than 1,100 Ph.D.s who could trace their scientific roots to him. This includes several current Minnesota faculty (Carr, Stankovich) and former faculty (Sandell, Reynolds, Bruckenstein, Swofford). The number of undergraduate students who have been instructed by him, his students or his books is truly inestimable. He claimed that the recognition which gave him the greatest pleasure was the inaugural Award for Excellence in Teaching of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 1983. In the words of James Lingane “...analytical chemistry has never been served by a more original mind, nor a more prolific pen, than Kolthoff’s.”