Ragnar Sohlman (February 26, 1870 – July 9, 1948) was a Swedish

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

, manager,

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, and creator of the

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation () is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. It also holds Nobel Sym ...

Biography

Ragnar Sohlman was born in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

to August Sohlman, a well-known newspaper man, and his wife Hulda Maria Sandeberg. In 1887, he enrolled at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and graduated as a chemical engineer in 1890. In 1893 Sohlman became the assistant of

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( ; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...

in San Remo, and Nobel's will from 1895 named him and Rudolf Lilljequist as

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...

s, with Sohlman expected to do most of the work. The will stated: The sum of 100,000 crowns was a very significant amount at the time, and made Sohlman a wealthy man. The amount can be compared to the prize amount of the first Nobel Prizes in 1901, 150,782 crowns each. After Alfred Nobel's death on December 10, 1896, Sohlman was occupied for several years with the task of realizing Nobel's intentions of establishing the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

. Since the will did not contain detailed regulations regarding selection of laureates and was contested by Nobel's relatives, the task kept Sohlman and his advisors occupied for several years. Sohlman was a member of the interim board of the Nobel Foundation. Sohlman also had a career as engineer and manager in Nobel-related companies, such as Bofors. He was also the director general of the Swedish National Board of Trade 1935–1936. He was the executive director of the Nobel Foundation 1929–1946. In 1940, he was awarded the Illis quorum. Sohlman died at the Karolinska hospital in Solna in 1948. Solhman's son was a Swedish diplomat and his grandson Michael Sohlman is the present executive director of the Nobel Foundation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sohlman, Ragnar 1870 births 1948 deaths Nobel Prize 20th-century Swedish engineers Swedish chemical engineers 20th-century Swedish businesspeople Engineers from Stockholm Recipients of the Illis quorum