page_title: Ernest Solvay
hierarchical_section_title: Ernest Solvay
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Fotografie der Teilnehmer der ersten Solvay-Konferenz von 1911. Sitzend (von links nach rechts): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay (Er war nicht anwesend, als das obige Gruppenfoto genommen wurde; Sein Porträt wurde grob eingeklebt, bevor das Bild veröffentlicht wurde), Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Skłodowska-Curie und Henri Poincaré. Stehend (von links nach rechts): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Édouard Herzen, James Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein und Paul Langevin. 1 Walter Nernst 2 Robert Goldschmidt 3 Max Planck 4 Marcel Brillouin 5 Heinrich Rubens 6 Ernest Solvay 7 Arnold Sommerfeld 8 Hendrik Antoon Lorentz 9 Frederick Lindemann 10 Maurice de Broglie 11 Martin Knudsen 12 Emil Warburg 13 Jean-Baptiste Perrin 14 Friedrich Hasenöhrl 15 Georges Hostelet 16 Edouard Herzen 17 James Hopwood Jeans 18 Wilhelm Wien 19 Ernest Rutherford 20 Marie Skłodowska-Curie 21 Henri Poincaré 22 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes 23 Albert Einstein 24 Paul Langevin English: Photograph of participants of the first Solvay Conference, in 1911, Brussels, Belgium. Seated (L-R): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay (he wasn't present when the above group photo was taken; his portrait was crudely pasted on before the picture was released), Hendrik Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Henri Poincaré. Standing (L-R): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin.
context_page_description: Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.
  Born in Rebecq, he was prevented by his acute pleurisy from going to university. He worked in his uncle's chemical factory from the age of 21.
  In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacturing of soda ash from brine and limestone. The process was an improvement over the earlier Leblanc process.
  He founded the company Solvay & Cie and established his first factory at Couillet in 1863 and further perfected the process until 1872, when he patented it. Soon, Solvay process plants were established in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Austria. Today, about 70 Solvay process plants are still operational worldwide.
  The exploitation of his patents brought Solvay considerable wealth, which he used for philanthropic purposes, including the establishment in 1894 of the "Institut des Sciences Sociales" or Institute for Sociology at the Free University of Brussels, as well as International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry. In 1903, he founded the Solvay Business School which is also part of the Free University of Brussels.
context_section_description: Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay (French: [sɔlvɛ]; 16 April 1838 – 26 May 1922) was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.
  Born in Rebecq, he was prevented by his acute pleurisy from going to university. He worked in his uncle's chemical factory from the age of 21.
  In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacturing of soda ash (anhydrous sodium carbonate) from brine (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate). The process was an improvement over the earlier Leblanc process.
  He founded the company Solvay & Cie and established his first factory at Couillet (now merged into Charleroi, Belgium) in 1863 and further perfected the process until 1872, when he patented it. Soon, Solvay process plants were established in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Austria. Today, about 70 Solvay process plants are still operational worldwide.
  The exploitation of his patents brought Solvay considerable wealth, which he used for philanthropic purposes, including the establishment in 1894 of the "Institut des Sciences Sociales" (ISS) or Institute for Sociology at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel), as well as International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry. In 1903, he founded the Solvay Business School which is also part of the Free University of Brussels. In 1911, he began a series of important conferences in physics, known as the Solvay Conferences, whose participants included luminaries such as Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Henri Poincaré, and (then only 32 years old) Albert Einstein. A later conference would include Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Erwin Schrödinger.
  He was twice elected to the Belgian Senate for the Liberal Party and granted honorary title of Minister of State at the end of his life. Solvay, New York and Rosignano Solvay, the locations of the first Solvay process plants in the United States and in Italy, are also named after him.
  Solvay died at Ixelles at the age of 84 and is buried in the Ixelles Cemetery.
caption: The portrait of participants to the first Solvay Conference in 1911. Ernest Solvay is the third seated from the left. Solvay was not present at the time the photo was taken, so his photo was cut and pasted onto this one for the official release
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