Giacomo Luigi Ciamician

Giacomo Luigi Ciamician
Born (1857-08-29)29 August 1857[1]
Trieste, Austrian Empire
Died 2 January 1922(1922-01-02) (aged 64)
Bologna, Italy
Education University of Vienna
Employer University of Bologna
Known for Photochemistry
Parent(s) Giacomo Ciamician
Carolina Ghezzo

Giacomo Luigi Ciamician (Armenian: Հակոբ (Ջակոմո) Լուիջի Չամիչյան, 27 August 1857 – 2 January 1922) was an Austrian photochemist and senator of Armenian descent.[2][3]

Life and work

He was born in Trieste, Italy (then part of Austria) from Armenian parents.

Ciamician was an early researcher in the area of photochemistry, where from 1900 to 1914 he published 40 notes, and 9 memoirs.He received his Ph.D. from the Universität Giessen. His first photochemistry experiment was published in 1886 and was titled "On the conversion of quinone into quinol.[2]

In 1912 he presented a paper before the 8th International Congress on Applied Chemistry later also published in Science in which he described the world's need for an energy transition to renewable energy. Ciamician saw the possibility to use photochemical devices that utilizing solar energy to produce fuels to power the human civilization and called for their development. They would not only make humanity independent from coal, but could also rebalance the economic gap between rich and poor countries. His vision makes him one early proponents of artificial photosynthesis.:[4][5]

"On the arid lands there will spring up industrial colonies without smoke and without smokestacks; forests of glass tubes will extend over the plains and glass buildings will rise everywhere; inside of these will take place the photochemical processes that hitherto have been the guarded secret of the plants, but that will have been mastered by human industry which will know how to make them bear even more abundant fruit than nature, for nature is not in a hurry and mankind is. And if in a distant future the supply of coal becomes completely exhausted, civilization will not be checked by that, for life and civilization will continue as long as the sun shines!'"'[6]

He received the honorary Doctor of Laws (DLL) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901.[7]

He died in Bologna, Italy.

See also

Publications (selection)

External links

References

  1. http://www.archiviostorico.unibo.it/System/27/553/ciamician_giacomo.pdf
  2. 1 2 Nasini, Raffaello; Brown, Reginald; Roe, Alfred; Miller, W. Lash; Hewitt, J. T.; Dawson, H. M.; Knecht, Edmund (1926). "Giacomo Luigi Ciamician". Journal of the Chemical Society. 129: 993–1050. doi:10.1039/JR9262900993.
  3. "Fuels from solar energy." (PDF). Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  4. Nicola Armaroli, Vincenzo Balzani, The Future of Energy Supply: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Angewandte Chemie 46, (2007), 52–66, doi:10.1002/anie.200602373.
  5. Vincenzo Balzani et al., Photochemical Conversion of Solar Energy. In: ChemSusChem 1, Issue 1-2, (2008), 26-58, doi:10.1002/cssc.200700087.
  6. Ciamician, G. The photochemistry of the future. Science 36, 385-394 (1912)
  7. "Glasgow University jubilee". The Times (36481). London. 14 June 1901. p. 10.


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