Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Artturi Virtanen received world-wide recognition for being awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method." Simply, he discovered in 1932 a method for better preserving the nutrients in hay, which would benefit countries with long, cold winters. By being able to feed dairy cows nutritious hay year-round, Finland was able to manufacture butter for national use as well as an export. In 1932 he patented AIV Fodder, a chemical method of adding an acid to cattle food or silage, which preserves the green fodder through the winter, thus the cattle are able to produce year-round. In his later years of studies, he developed a partially synthetic cattle feed. He purchased a dairy farm to watch his experiments work. The son of a railroad engineer, he attended local schools before the University of Helsinki studying chemistry, earning his masters degree in 1913 and his PhD in organic chemistry in 1918. The next year, he accepted a position in the laboratories with Valio, a large producer of dairy products, becoming director of the laboratories in 1920. Seeking more education in botany, physical chemistry, microbiology, soil chemistry, and zoology, he was led to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the University of Munster in Germany, and to Sweden for the University Stockholm. In 1923 he studied under German-born Swedish chemist, Han von Euler-Chelpin, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929. Returning to the University of Helsinki in 1924, he gave lectures on the chemistry of life. He accepted a position with the Butter Export Association, which eventually became the laboratory for the university. In 1930, he founded the Institute of Biochemistry, staying there until his death. He became a professor of biochemistry at the Helsinki University of Technology in 1932 and at the University of Helsinki in 1939. During World War II, he supported his country's war effort. The Winter War broke out on November 30, 1939 and he, his assistants, and equipment left the city in the evening. His contributions consist of the invention of the A-model "Molotov Cocktail," and later, trying to make food from wood to prevent the population from starving to death, but was found that wood had little nutritional value. The Rockefeller Foundation in the United States funded his research. His politics did not agree with all of those in elected offices. In 1949, at his suggestion Natural Sciences and Humanities Commission under the Ministry of Education, which was eventually accepted. He was disappointed when he was not elected the first chairman of the Natural Sciences Commission, according to sources, because of his political beliefs, which did not side with the Communist Party. In 1954, at his suggestion, the Academy made proposals for the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nutrition Commission under the Department of Agriculture. When this commission was established, he was elected the first chairman. He was not elected as the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Advisory Council. He continued to support general science education in all public schools. Besides the Nobel Prize, he received a membership of the Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Flemish, Bavarian, and Pontifical Academies of Science, and of the Swedish and Danish Academies of Engineering Sciences. The Finnish Parliament passed a bill to form the Academy of Finland on September 16, 1947. According to the Academy Act, there would be 12 academicians, four of whom had to represent the natural sciences. On April 20, 1948, the Academy Board nominated the first ten academics with Virtanen being the board's first choice as an academician of science. At the academy's first meeting, he was elected the first president, although he could not be a professor to hold this honor. He was an honorary member of learned societies in Finland, Sweden, Austria, Edinburgh, and the United States, and received honorary degrees of the Universities of Lund, Paris, Giessen, and Helsinki, the Royal Technical College at Stockholm, and the Finland Institute of Technology. An asteroid and a moon crater were named in his honor. Using his own initials, he named his discovery "AIV Fodder." He married in 1920 a botanist, Lilja Moisio, and they had two sons, with one becoming a professor and the other continuing his father's farm. Enjoying the simple farm life, the family never owned a car. In 1969 he was diagnosed with Parkinson Disease. In October before his death, he had a fall and fractured his femur. As a widower, he died from the complication of post-operative pneumonia.