Erwin Weiss (chemist)
Erwin Weiss (born July 9, 1926 in Arzberg / Upper Franconia; † April 27, 2019 ) was a German chemist and professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Hamburg .
life and work
After military service and captivity (1944-47), he studied at the Technical College (now University ) München chemistry and in 1956 at Walter Hieber to Dr. rer. nat. PhD . His experimental work on the structural chemistry of metal carbonyl compounds and aromatic complexes also contained the X-ray crystal structure evidence for the sensational organometallic compound bis (benzene) chromium synthesized by Walter Hafner and Ernst Otto Fischer (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1973) .
Various stays abroad followed: 1956 as a scholarship holder at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, 1957–61 as a research associate at the research institute European Research Associates (ERA) in Brussels and 1961–65 as a department director at the Cyanamid European Research Institute (CERI) in Geneva .
In 1965 he accepted a professorship at the University of Hamburg , where he researched and taught at the Institute for Inorganic and Applied Chemistry until his retirement in 1991. His main research interests were the synthesis and X-ray structure elucidation of organometallic compounds with a wide range of metals and ligands, including carbonyl. Olefin and other hydrocarbon groups. Some of the first representatives with metal main group element multiple bonds were also discovered. Investigations into the structure of methyllithium as the simplest organometallic compound, which had already begun in Geneva, have been systematically expanded and extended to include other methyls and organyls of sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, magnesium and copper. The diverse coordination possibilities of these substance classes were thus recognized. The determination of the precision structures of LiCH 3 , NaCH 3 and KCH 3 was achieved by using neutron radiation and synchrotron radiation .
Memberships and honors
- 1969–1971 Weiss was a member of the Commission on the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry IUPAC.
- 1990–2005 he was an elected member of the Joachim Jungius Society of Sciences .
- In 1992 he was awarded the Gay Lussac Humboldt Prize by the French government.
- Erwin Weiss has been a member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg since it was founded in 2005 .
Fonts (selection)
Weiss has authored or co-authored over 200 publications in respected scientific journals.
Web links
- Short biography and list of publications at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg
- Erwin Weiss in the Hamburg professor catalog
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erwin Weiss obituary notice , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 4, 2019.
- ^ R. Dieter Fischer: Erwin Weiss (1926–2019) , Nachrichten aus der Chemie 67 (2019), p. 76.
- ^ Fausto Calderazzo: A Celebration of Inorganic Lives. Interview with Erwin Weiss, In: Coordination Chemistry Reviews . 249 (2005), pp. 873-881.
- ↑ Erwin Weiss: Structures of Organic Alkali Metal Complexes and Related Compounds. In: Angew. Chem. 1993, 105, pp. 1564-1587; also in: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 1993, 32, pp. 1501-1523.
- ↑ a b Publications by Erwin Weiss: Short biography. In: chemie.uni-hamburg.de. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
- ↑ a b Prof. Dr. Erwin Weiss. In: awhamburg.de. Academy of Sciences in Hamburg, accessed on May 4, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Weiss, Erwin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Arzberg , Upper Franconia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 27, 2019 |