van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus

van't Hoff, Jacobus Hendricus (yäkō`bəs hĕndrē`kəs vänt hôf), 1852–1911, Dutch physical chemist. He taught at the universities of Amsterdam (1878–96) and Berlin (from 1896). For his work in chemical dynamics and osmotic electrical conductivity (which led to Arrhenius's theory of electrolytic dissociation or ionization) he received the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1901). His studies in molecular structure laid the foundation of stereochemistry.