Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig

Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and trace minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which described how plant growth relied on the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Justus von Liebig has received more than 703,312 page views. His biography is available in 62 different languages on Wikipedia (down from 63 in 2019). Justus von Liebig is the 28th most popular chemist (down from 24th in 2019), the 256th most popular biography from Germany (down from 198th in 2019) and the 6th most popular German Chemist.

Justus von Liebig is most famous for his development of the Law of the Minimum, which states that growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient, or the nutrient in shortest supply.