Stereochemistry is the study of the three dimensional shape of molecules and the effects of shape upon the properties of molecules.

Dutch chemist Jacobus Hendricus van't Hoff—, the winner of the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901, pioneered the study of molecular structure and stereochemistry. Van't Hoff's ideas were not readily accepted by the scientific community in the late 1800s. His original paper was only 13 pages long, including one page of diagrams. This brief paper, however, gave rise to a powerful explanation of how molecules are structured and how they react with other molecules. Van't Hoff proposed that the concept of an asymmetrical carbon atom explained the existence of numerous isomers that had baffled the chemists of the day. Van't Hoff's work gave eventual rise to stereochemistry when he correctly described the existence of a relationship between a molecule's optical properties and the presence of an asymmetrical...