An Excursion into the History of Chromatography: Mikhail Tswett, From Asti, Italy, to Tartu, Estonia

Abstract

In 2010, in this Journal, I described two memorials in Tartu, Estonia, honouring scientists who worked on the development of chromatography, Teodor Lippmaa and Mikhail Semyonovich Tswett 1 (Михаил Семëнович Цвет) [1]. The University of Tartu, founded in 1632 and reopened after various vicissitudes in 1802, 2 has a long tradition in science and chemistry [2]. Its reopening took place under the initiative of George-Frederic Parrot [3], a German-speaking mathematician, physicist and chemist born in France. 3 As reported in my 2010 note, during visits to the University of Tartu, I discovered a plaque (Fig. 2) in the University botanical garden (Fig. 1) commemorating the contribution of Mikhail Tswett to the Tartu Botanical Garden in 1917 and 1918.