Odd Hassel

He suffered from albinism since birth.

Odd Hassel died in Oslo, Norway on May 11, 1981.

Odd Hassel was born in Kristiania which is now Oslo, Norway, on May 17, 1897. His father was a gynecologist named Ernst August Hassel and his mother was Mathilde Christine Klaveness.

He had a twin brother named Lars, another two brothers named Ernst and Fredrik and a sister named Ella.

His father died when he was only eight. He continued to live with his mother till the age of thirty-five.

He completed his matriculation from the ‘Vestheim School’ in 1915 along with his twin brother.

After matriculation he enrolled at the ‘University of Oslo’ in 1915 to study mathematics and physics with chemistry as the main subject.

Odd Hassel joined the chemistry faculty at the ‘University of Oslo’ in 1925 as a ‘universitetsstipendiat’ and became a ‘dosent’ in 1926. He became a Professor and the Chairman of the Physical Chemistry department at the university in 1934 and held the post up to 1964.

He started an intensive research on the structure of ‘cyclohexane’ and its derivatives from 1930 and discovered that a molecule of ‘cyclohexane’ crystal existed in two forms which were boat-shaped and in the chair form. He showed that it contained rings with six members and the two bonds of the carbon atom were differently oriented in space.

At this time he set down the fundamental facts about ‘Conformational Analysis’ and also wrote a book titled ‘Kristallchemie’ on his discovery.

By 1943 he had introduced two additional methods which had not been used in Norway previously to supplement the experimental methods already available.

He had gathered enough material but yet had to draw the final conclusions about possible’ conformations’ and published an article on his findings written in a Norwegian journal named ‘Journal of Chemistry: rock being and metallurgy’.

Odd Hassel authored the book ‘Krtistallchemie’ or ‘Crystal Chemistry’ which was written in German and published in 1934.