Nobel Prizes and Laureates

Nobel Prizes and Laureates

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1956
Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semenov

Share this:

Nikolay Semenov - Facts

Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov

Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov

Born: 3 April 1896, Saratov, Russia

Died: 25 September 1986, Moscow, USSR



Field: chemical kinetics, physical chemistry

Prize share: 1/2


During chemical reactions, atoms and molecules regroup and form new constellations. When molecules formed during a reaction readily react with molecules present from the beginning, a chain reaction can occur. Explosions and fire are examples of chain reactions. During the 1930s Nikolay Semenov analyzed conditions and sequences of events involved in chain reactions from a theoretical and mathematical standpoint. Among other things, he found that the theoretical results corresponded with observations of the reactions between phosporus and oxygen and between hydrogen and oxygen.

Share this:
To cite this page