Gerhard Geiseler

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Gerhard Geiseler (born January 21, 1915 in Soldin ; † May 8, 1999 in Frankenberg / Eder ) was a German chemist ( physical chemistry ).

Life

Geiseler studied chemistry at the University of Königsberg from 1935 , was an assistant from 1939 and received his doctorate in 1941. In 1942 he joined the Leunawerke experimental laboratory and after the war (1946–1951) he worked in a research institute in Leningrad as part of the reparation payments ordered . He then continued his work at the Leunawerke as head of a research department and a production department for ethylene and completed his habilitation in 1955 at the University of Leipzig. In 1959 he received a professorship there with a teaching position for special areas of physical chemistry. In 1960 he was appointed professor with a chair in physical chemistry. In the same year he was appointed director of the Physico-Chemical Institute at the University of Leipzig, which he headed from 1960 to 1968. In 1969 he became a member of the Leopoldina . and from 1976 member of the Senate of this academy. In 1980 Geiseler retired in Leipzig.

In addition to basic research, the focus of his scientific work was on numerous industrial research projects. Geiseler was significantly involved in the development of the Synol process and in 1954/55 developed a process for ethylene polymerization under high pressure at the Leunawerke, which was later implemented industrially in the Polymirworks near Leuna and in the Soviet Union. The process he developed for the production of methylene chloride by thermal chlorination of methane was later used in various large-scale industrial plants.

In 1942 he examined the Haff disease , a fish poisoning, which first appeared in 1924 .

Geiseler's complete scientific work comprises more than 200 publications and numerous patents. His work was widely recognized, including being elected a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (1969), the award of the first Wilhelm Ostwald Medal by the Saxon Academy of Sciences (1979) and honorary membership of the German Bunsen Society ( 1991). Numerous successful industrial chemists and several university lecturers emerged from the Geiseler scientific school. The latter include Manfred Rätzsch (Linz / Austria), Johanna Fruwert (University of Leipzig), Klaus Scherzer (TH Leuna-Merseburg), Reiner Salzer (TU Dresden) and Heinz Böhlig (University of Leipzig).

Fonts

  • Editor: Selected physical methods of organic chemistry, 2 volumes, Berlin, Akademie Verlag 1963
  • with Heinz Seidel: The hydrogen bond, Vieweg, Teubner 1977
  • Editor: Elementary Chemical Reactions and Reaction Mechanisms, 1979

literature

  • Johanna Fruwert: Gerhard Geiseler (born 1915): in: Well-known professors at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, 1983, pp. 7-14.
  • Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 165.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by Gerhard Geiseler at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on January 31, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Geiseler, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Soldin
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1999
Place of death Frankenberg / Sa.