His life and work

Kurt Wohl (1896-1962) was a brilliant theoretician who worked in areas as widely different as photosyn- thesis and flames. Bitter events before World War II forced him to change activities several times, but in spite of this he made lasting contributions to the thermodynamics of solutions and transport proper- ties of gases at high temperatures and pressures. Physical chemists and chemical engineers are famil- iar with Wohl through his model for describing the behavior and phase equilibrium of a real solution. They are generally unaware of his rich contributions in other scientific areas such as the application of thermodynamics and reaction chemistry to photo - synthesis and plant respiration, determination of heat capacities and dissociation rates of gases at high temperatures, and the theory of combustion and flames. Here we describe his personal life and career, his scientific achievements, and, in particular, his con- tributions to thermodynamics and plant physiology.