Artturi Ilmari Virtanen
| Artturi Ilmari Virtanen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
15 January 1895 Helsinki, Finland |
| Died | 11 November 1973 (aged 78) Helsinki, Finland |
| Nationality | Finland |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions |
Helsinki University of Technology University of Helsinki |
| Alma mater | University of Helsinki |
| Known for | AIV fodder |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1945) |
Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (Finnish: [ˈɑrtːuri ˈilmɑri ˈʋirtɑnen]; 15 January 1895 – 11 November 1973) was a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
He invented AIV silage which improved milk production and a method of preserving butter, the AIV salt, which led to increased Finnish butter exports.
Virtanen was born in Helsinki, Finland. He completed his school education at the Classical Lyceum in Viipuri, Finland. He married the botanist Lilja Moisio in 1920 and had two sons with her.
In 1933 he bought a farm near Helsinki where he tested some of his scientific results in practice. He saw in the overproduction of food only a temporary phenomenon. He loved the simple life, never had a car of his own, never smoked and never consumed alcohol. He died two weeks after a hip fracture from associated complications.
Virtanen began his studies in chemistry 1913 earning his Master and in 1918 his Phd in organic chemistry. In 1919 he started to work in the laboratories of Valio, a large producer of dairy products and became director of the laboratory in 1920. Feeling not fully qualified and following his interest in botany and zoology led him to further scientific education and so he left Valio and studied at the ETH, the University of Münster and the , physical chemistry, soil chemistry and microbiology. In 1923 in Sweden he worked with Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929. Back in Finland he became lecturer at the University of Helsinki in 1924, known for his lectures on chemistry of life. He worked in the laboratory of the Butter Export Association, which became a laboratory of the university. In 1930 the Institute for Biochemistry was founded and Virtanen stayed there until his death in 1973. He became professor of biochemistry at the Helsinki University of Technology in 1931 and at the University of Helsinki in 1939.
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