born Jan. 27, 1888, Zürich, Switz.
died March 20, 1947, Oslo, Nor.
Swiss-born Norwegian mineralogist and petrologist.
He became director of the Mineralogical Institute of the University of Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1914. The dearth of raw materials during World War I led Goldschmidt to research in geochemistry . His work in that area, and more general studies after the war, marks the beginnings of modern geochemistry. His Geochemical Laws of the Distribution of the Elements (8 vol., 1923–38) laid the foundations of inorganic crystal chemistry. During the 1930s he studied the relative cosmic abundance of the elements. In 1942 he escaped a Nazi concentration camp and fled to England; after the war he returned to Oslo.