Izaak Maurits (Piet) Kolthoff (February 11, 1894 – March 4, 1993) was an analytical chemist and chemistry educator.
He was also active in social causes, including promoting world peace and opposing nuclear weapons testing.
Schoorl's instruction in analytical chemistry provided an emphasis on fundamental chemical principles, which was unusual at the time.
[2] Kolthoff would adopt and later promote Schoorl's adage towards research, "Theory guides, experiment decides.
When the classical language requirement for physical sciences was lifted in 1918, Kolthoff received a PhD in chemistry from the University of Utrecht.
[1] He accepted the position and continued his research and writing, producing English translations and expansions of much of his previous work.
[4] Kolthoff's scientific approach to analysis is widely accepted today, but was rare in the early 1900s when his career began.
[4] In 1993 it was estimated that more than 1,500 PhD chemists, including Allen J. Bard, could trace their academic lineage to Kolthoff.
[1] Kolthoff was a proponent for establishing analytical chemistry as a modern scientific discipline and elevating its reputation among chemists generally.
[6] During World War II, Kolthoff worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to relocate European scientists who were persecuted by Nazis to universities in the U.S.
Following World War II, he traveled to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia to build cooperation with scientists there.
Kolthoff died of kidney failure on 4 March 1993 at Bethesda Lutheran Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in St.
Kolthoff was named a Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau, a civil and military honor provided by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in 1947.