Nobel Prizes During World War I (1914–1918), Part 1

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1914 was awarded to Theodore William Richards (1868–1928) of Harvard University “in recognition of his accurate determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of chemical elements,” 25 in all. Richards received the Nobel Prize one year later, on November 1915 and was the first American Nobel chemistry laureate. Richards’ professional and personal life and career with an emphasis on his work on atomic weights, isotopes, atomic compressibility, and physical chemistry are discussed.