Artturi Ilmari Virtanen

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Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (IPA: [ˈɑrtːuri ˈilmɑri ˈvirtɑnen]) (January 15, 1895 – November 11, 1973) was a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Virtanen was born in Helsinki, Finland. He completed his school education at the Classical Lyceum in Viipuri, Finland. Subsequently, Virtanen studied chemistry, biology, and physics at the University of Helsinki and other subjects in Switzerland and Sweden. He became professor of biochemistry at the Finnish Institute of Technology in Helsinki in 1931 and at the University of Helsinki in 1939. His research included partially synthetic cattle feeds, nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the root nodules of leguminous plants, and improved methods of butter preservation.

In 1945, Virtanen became a Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method" (AIV Fodder). The method, patented in 1932, was basically a kind of silage that improved the storage of green fodder, which is important during long winters. The process includes adding dilute hydrochloric or sulfuric acid to newly stored grain. Increased acidity stops harmful fermentation and has no adverse effect on the nutritive value of the fodder or the animals it is fed to.

The asteroid 1449 Virtanen, discovered by the renowned Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä, was named after him.