Johannes Nicolaus Bronsted 22 February 1879 – 17 December 1947) born in

Varde, was a Danish physical chemist. He earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1899
and his Ph.D. in 1908 from the University of Copenhagen and was immediately thereafter
appointed professor of inorganic and physical chemistry at the same university.

In 1906 he published the first of his many papers on electron affinity, and, simultaneously
with the English chemist Thomas Martin Lowry, he introduced the protonic theory of acid-
base reactions in 1923. That same year, Gilbert N. Lewis proposed an electronic theory of
acid-base reactions, but both theories remain commonly used.

He became known as an authority on catalysis by acids and bases and was the namesake of
the Brønsted catalysis equation. Working with Lowry, he also developed the often-used
theory of proton donation, theorizing that a hydrogen atom (which is always found in an
acid) ionizes into hydronium upon dissolving in water, thereby losing its electron and
becoming a proton donor, and that hydroxide (a water molecule stripped of one of its two
hydrogen atoms) is a proton receiver. Mixing the two causes a neutralization reaction
wherein hydronium and hydroxide combine, creating hydrogen hydroxide, a compound
otherwise known as water. The pH scale may be interpreted as "power of hydrogen", and
the definition is based on the work of Brønsted and Lowry.

In World War II, Brønsted's opposition to the Nazis led to his election to the Danish
parliament in 1947, but he was too ill to take his seat and died shortly after the election.