Karl Albert Hasselbalch


Karl Albert Hasselbalch was a physician and chemist.

Early life and education

Hasselbalch was born at Åstrup, near Hjørring, the son of Hans Peter Jansen Hasselbalch and Hedevig Alberta Rebekka Spärck.

Career

He was a pioneer in the use of pH measurement in medicine, and he described how the affinity of blood for oxygen was dependent on the concentration of carbon dioxide. He was also first to determine the pH of blood. In 1916, he converted the 1908 equation of Lawrence Joseph Henderson to logarithmic form, which is now known as the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation.