Through twenty-five years of painstaking work, Norwegian physical chemist Odd Hassel confirmed the long-suspected three-dimensional nature of organic molecules, and his work in this field, called conformational analysis , altered the perception of chemistry. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1969, which he shared with the English chemist DerekH. R. Barton. Although other Norwegians had won the prize before him, Hassel's win was a special source of pride for his countrymen, for he was the first winner whose work had been carried out almost entirely in Norway.

One of a set of twins, Odd Hassel was born May 17, 1897, in Kristiana (now Oslo), Norway. His father Ernst was a gynecologist. His mother, Mathilde Klaveness Hassel, raised her four sons and one daughter alone after her husband died when Odd was eight years old. While his brothers, including his twin Lars, entered law and civil engineering, Hassel chose a different...