S. P. L. Sørensen
Danish chemist · Denmark · Scientists · Lived 1868 to 1939 · aged 71
S. P. L. Sørensen is read about 50 times a day, in 36 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 89 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He gave the world a single letter and number that chemists, doctors, pool technicians, and winemakers check every day: the pH scale, the shorthand for how acidic or basic something is.
A life in dates
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About this person
Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen was born on 9 January 1868 in Denmark. A chemist by training, he introduced the concept of pH while working to quantify acidity and alkalinity - a measurement problem that had bedeviled labs for decades. The scale he devised became the universal standard, compact enough to fit on a test strip and precise enough to matter in blood, soil, and fermentation tanks. He died on 12 February 1939, seventy-one years old, having left chemistry a tool it uses thousands of times a day.
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