Professor Fritz Haber, c mid-20th century

Fritz Jakob Haber, 9 December 1868 - 29 January 1934. Born in Breslau, Prussia. Haber was a German chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for the invention of the Haber process, which was a method by which ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas could be synthesized. This helped revolutionise the industry for fertilisers and explosives. He also worked with Max Born, creator of these slides, to create the Born-Haber cycle which is a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid. Haber is known as the 'father of chemical warfare', for his pioneering of chlorine as a weapon, and other poisonous gases during WWI, for the purposes of the German Army. He proposed the use of chlorine gas as a weapon during the Second Battle of Ypres. His works were later used, without his direct involvement, to develop Zyklon B which was used to kill more than 1 million Jewish people in gas chambers during the Holocaust. Haber himself was from a Jewish background. He studied at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, before transferring to Heidelberg University for a semester where he studied under Robert Bunsen. He then attended the Technische Hochschule. He achieved his doctorate from Friedrich Wilhelm University in 1891, as Technische Hochschule was not accredited to award doctorates. He worked for a time at his father's dying company but after a period of discomfort and disagreement, he left to work in academia. Haber first worked at the University of Jena between 1892 and 1894, at which time he converted from Judaism to Lutherism, potentially to seek better career opportunities due to anti-Semitic discrimination at the time. He worked at Karlsruhe on dye and textiles. Then between 1894 to 1911, he invented the Haber-Bosch process which forms ammonia from hydrogen. The creation of this process led to the ability to produce much higher agricultural yields, which now help feed half the world's population. He won the Nobel Prize for this work. Haber married Clara Immerwahr in 1901, and their son was born in 1902. Clara was a women's rights activist and a pacifist. In 1915, after an argument with her husband, Clara shot herself and died by suicide. Many consider Haber's participation in the development of chemical warfare and Haber using chlorine gas in the Second Battle of Ypres, in which 67,000 people died as a major reason for her suicide. Haber was an enthusiastic nationalist, and welcomed WWI. He played a major role in the development of chemical warfare. He developed the use of chlorine gas in trench warfare. He also helped develop gas masks which could protect against such chemical warfare. Haber received strong criticism for his work on chemical warfare by other scientists, particularly Albert Einstein. Haber married his second wife in 1917, Charlotte Nathan. The two had two children a son and daughter, but divorced in 1927. Haber continued to develop chemical warfare in secret for Germany between the world wars, helping give Spain and Russia access to chemical weapons. He created Zyklon A as an insecticide in the 1920s. Haber was concerned by the rise of the Nazi party, and how his Jewish colleagues were targeted by 1933 by the Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service, in which Jewish scientists were removed from positions. Haber was accused of nepotism through his Jewish identity as to why he received his position at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. He tendered his resignation and told his family they should leave Germany for their safety. After the Nazis rose to power in 1933, he resigned from his position at and travelled to Rehovot, but died of heart failure in Basel, Switzerland, mid-journey in 1934, aged 65. Many members of Haber's family died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.