Danish chemist who determined the amount of heat evolved from or absorbed in a large number of chemical reactions.

Thomsen held two teaching posts before he became professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen (1866–91). He verified Gustav Kirchhoff's equation concerning heats of reaction and confirmed the theory of mass action advanced by Cato Maximilian Guldberg and Peter Waage, both of Norway. Thomsen also devised the first table of the relative strengths of acids. He became prosperous from developing a process (patented in 1853) for the manufacture of soda from the mineral cryolite.