S. P. L. Sørensen

S. P. L. Sørensen
S. P. L. Sørensen
Born	9 January 1868 Havrebjerg, Denmark
Died	12 February 1939 (aged 71)
Nationality	Danish
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	Carlsberg Laboratory
Known for	pH

Søren Peder Lauritz Sørensen (9 January 1868 – 12 February 1939) was a Danish chemist, famous for the introduction of the concept of pH, a scale for measuring acidity and basicity. He was born in Havrebjerg, Denmark.

From 1901 to 1938 he was head of the prestigious Carlsberg Laboratory, Copenhagen.^[1] While working at the Carlsberg Laboratory he studied the effect of ion concentration on proteins,^[2] and because the concentration of hydrogen ions was particularly important, he introduced the pH-scale as a simple way of expressing it in 1909.^[3] The article in which he introduced the scale (using the notation p_H^[4]), described two new methods for measuring acidity.^[5] The first method was based on electrodes, while the second involved comparing the colors of samples and a preselected set of indicators.

He is also known for the Sørensen formol titration.

References

1. "Sørensen, Søren Peter Lauritz (1868-1939)". 100 Distinguished European Chemists. European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
2. "Søren Sørenson". Chemical Achievers - The Human Face of the Chemical Science. Chemical Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
3. Alberty, Robert; Silbey, Robert (1996). Physical Chemistry (second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 244. ISBN 0-471-10428-0.
4. Sørensen, S. P. L. (1909). "Enzymstudien. II: Mitteilung. Über die Messung und die Bedeutung der Wasserstoffionenkoncentration bei enzymatischen Prozessen". Biochemische Zeitschrift (in German) 21: 131–304.
5. Nielsen, Anita Kildebæk (2001). "S.P.L. Sørensen" (in Danish). Biokemisk forening. Retrieved 2007-01-09.