Artturi Ilmari Virtanen

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (; 15 January 1895 – 11 November 1973) was a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method".

He invented AIV silage which improved milk production and a method of preserving butter, the AIV salt, which led to increased Finnish butter exports.

Personal life Artturi Ilmari Virtanen was born on 15 January 1895, in Helsinki, Finland . He is the son of Kaarlo Virtanen, a railway engine driver and Serafina Isotalo.

He completed his school education at the Classical Lyceum in Viipuri, Finland. He married the botanist Lilja Moisio (1894-1972) in 1920 and had two sons with her.

Academics Virtanen began his studies at the University of Helsinki in chemistry 1913 earning his Master and in 1918 his PhD in organic chemistry. In 1919 he started to work in the laboratories of Valio, a large producer of dairy products and became director of the laboratory in 1920. Feeling not fully qualified and following his interest in botany and zoology led him to further scientific education and so he left Valio and studied at the ETH, the University of Münster and the Stockholm University he studied physical chemistry, soil chemistry and microbiology. In 1923 in Sweden he worked with Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929. Back in Finland he became lecturer at the University of Helsinki in 1924, known for his lectures on chemistry of life. He worked in the laboratory of the Butter Export Association, which became a laboratory of the university. In 1930 the Institute for Biochemistry was founded and Virtanen stayed there until his death in 1973. He became professor of biochemistry at the Helsinki University of Technology in 1931 and at the University of Helsinki in 1939.

His later years studies included the development of partially synthetic cattle feeds. The nitrogen for the synthesis of amino acids normally comes from proteins in the fodder. A special bacterial environment in the rumen of cattle allows them to use urea and ammonium salts as source for the nitrogen instead of plant proteins like soybean or meat and bone meal. He also headed the Valio Laboratory from 1921 to 1969.

Awards and honours The prestige conferred by the Nobel Prize brought Virtanen invitations, honorary doctorates and membership in foreign academies of science. The lunar crater Virtanen is also named after him.

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