Ada Prins (18 September 1879,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
– 20 July 1977,
Voorburg
Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...
) was a Dutch chemist and in 1908 became the first woman in the
Netherlands
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to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Biography
Prins obtained her doctorate at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
under the supervision of
Richard Roland Holst with the thesis ''Vloeiende mengkristallen in binaire stelsels'' (Liquid mixed crystals in binary systems).
She went on to enhance her reputation by writing chemistry textbooks.
Together with the engineer Grada P. de Groot she wrote ''Guidelines for inorganic and organic chemistry with its application in industry and household''. In 1935 the second edition was published by Nijgh & van Ditmar NV Rotterdam. She also wrote the ''Brief Guidelines for Qualitative Chemical Analysis'', published by Scheltema & Holkema's Boekhandel and Uitgeverers-mij NV - Amsterdam. In 1952 the last and seventh improved edition was published.
Personal life
Prins was known to have had a friendly intellectual and romantic relationship with
Dutch poet and
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
,
Herman Gorter (1864–1927) starting in 1901.
[ ] According to Zwart,
Whereas Ada Prins is mostly remembered as one of Gorter’s secret lovers, she was first and foremost his educated guide into the complex and enigmatic world of twentieth-century chemistry research. Liquid crystal chemistry became an important source of inspiration for Gorter’s work and the main objective of this paper is to demonstrate her influence on Gorter’s ''Pan'' as a scientific poem.
Her brother was the shipbuilder and engineer Huibert Nicolaas Prins. At his funeral in 1939 she spoke on behalf of the family.
Selected works
* Prins, Ada. "Flüssige Mischkristalle in binären Systemen." ''Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie'' 67.1 (1909): 689-723.
* Prins, A. "Critical phenomena of the ternary system ether anthraquinone-naphthalene." ''KNAW, Proceedings''. Vol. 13. 1910.
* Büchner, Ε. H., and Ada Prins. "Löslichkeit und Lösungswärme von Chromtrioxyd in Wasser." ''Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie'' 81.1 (1913): 113-120.
* Prins, A. "On critical end-points and the systems ethane ." ''KNAW, Proceedings''. Vol. 17. 1915.
* Büchner, E. H., and A. Prins. "Vapour pressures in the system: carbon disulphide-methylalcohol." ''KNAW, Proceedings''. Vol. 19. 1917.
* Prins, Ada, and Grada P. de Groot. ''Leidraad voor de anorganische en organische scheikunde met toepassingen in industrie en huishouding''. Nijgh & van Ditmar, 1927.
* Prins, Ada. "Sur la Difficulté D'obtenir une Idée du Mécanisme D'une Réaction par la Détermination de la Vitesse." ''Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays‐Bas'' 51.6 (1932): 576-578.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prins, Ada
20th-century Dutch chemists
Dutch women chemists
Scientists from Amsterdam
University of Amsterdam alumni
1879 births
1977 deaths