Victor Goldschmidt, called the founding father of modern geochemistry, helped lay the foundations for the field of crystal chemistry. He was a highly esteemed mineralogist, petrologist, and geochemist who devoted the bulk of his research to the study of the composition of the earth . During his many years as a professor and director of a mineralogical institute in Norway, he also investigated solutions to practical geochemical problems at the request of the Norwegian government.

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt was born on January 27, 1888, in Zurich, Switzerland, to Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt, a distinguished professor of physical chemistry, and Amelie Kohne. His family left Switzerland in 1900 and moved to Norway, where his father took a post as professor of physical chemists at the University of Christiania (now Oslo). Goldschmidt's family obtained Norwegian citizenship in 1905, the same year he entered the university to study chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. There he studied under the...