Kurt Heyns

Kurt Heyns (born December 13, 1908 in Hamburg , † April 28, 2005 in Hamburg) was a German chemist .

Life

Kurt Heyns obtained his doctorate at the age of 23. rer. nat. 1932 in Halle (Saale) with Emil Abderhalden on the subject of 'Studies on the breakdown products formed during the hydrolysis of proteins'. He had also studied music and passed a concert exam. Abderhalden suggested a university career to Heyns, so that he was senior assistant at Abderhalden in Halle from 1932 to 1937. A thoughtless political statement temporarily ended his university career and he had to work as an industrial chemist at Merck and Maizena from 1937 to 1948. However, with the topic 'On oxidative transformations in the chemistry of carbohydrates, with special consideration of the synthesis of vitamin C', he succeeded in doing his habilitation in Hamburg in 1942 . From 1948 to 1978 he researched and taught there as a professor of organic chemistry . For many years he was head of the Hamburg Student Union and from 1956 to 1968 President of the Joachim Jungius Society of Sciences .

For his significant contributions in the field of mass spectrometry and to investigations of the browning of foods ( Maillard reaction ), in which he and Wolfgang Koch allowed fructose to react with amines in 1952 and thereby discovered the Heyns rearrangement , he received the Joseph-König- Commemorative coin of the Society of German Chemists and an honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1986. In 1991 he received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

His scientific publication activities include a. Over 330 publications in a period of 66 years, starting in 1931 on the hydrolysis of tussah silk fibroin, at that time still together with Emil Abderhalden , to his last publication in 1997, now 89 years old, on a topic of liquid crystals . In 41 years he supervised almost 100 dissertations, the first of which was completed in 1949 on the subject of the degradation of gelatine, the last in 1989 on the subject of N-nitroso compounds of monosaccharide amides. Important academic students of Kurt Heyns are Professors Wolfgang Walter (University of Hamburg), Hans Paulsen (University of Hamburg), Hans-Friedrich Grützmacher (University of Bielefeld), Werner Baltes (University of Hamburg, TU Berlin), Peter Köll ( Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg ), Wittko Francke (University of Hamburg) and Harald Röper.

Books (selection)

• General organic chemistry. Study book for students of chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, biology from the 2nd semester. Academic Publishing Society, Frankfurt am Main 1970.
• The more recent results of starch research (= Die Wissenschaft. 103, ZDB -ID 538216-6 ). Vieweg, Braunschweig 1949.
• About oxidative transformations in the chemistry of carbohydrates, with special consideration of the synthesis of vitamin C. Hamburg 1942 (Hamburg, University, habilitation paper, 1942).
• Studies of the breakdown products formed during the hydrolysis of proteins. Borna-Leipzig 1932 (Halle, university, dissertation, 1932).

Web links

• Literature by and about Kurt Heyns in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and list of publications at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg