Reginald Gruehn

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Werner Reginald Albert Gruehn (born October 6, 1929 in Dorpat , Estonia , † July 17, 2002 in Giessen ) was a German chemist .

Life

Reginald Gruehn, son of Werner Gruehn and Amata Gruehn, b. Baroness v. Schilling, spent his early childhood in Dorpat before moving to Berlin- Zehlendorf with his parents in 1936 . After the war ended and his parents divorced, Gruehn came to Westphalia with his mother .

After graduating from the municipal high school in Hamm , he studied chemistry with Wilhelm Klemm , Fritz Micheel and Harald Schäfer at the University of Münster from 1951 to 1958 . After completing his studies as a graduate chemist, he worked there from 1958 to 1959 as a research assistant and from 1959 to 1962 as administrator of a research assistant position. He submitted his dissertation on the subject of "Analytical and preparative investigations in the so-called homogeneity area of ​​niobium pentoxide" and received his doctorate in natural sciences in 1962 as a student of the inorganic scientist Harald Schäfer at the University of Münster.

From 1962 to 1966 Gruehn was a research assistant, since 1966 senior research assistant at the Inorganic-Chemical Institute of the University of Münster. During this time he worked on a "micro-method for the analytical determination of lower oxidation states", which he published in 1966 and which was the basis for his habilitation in 1969 and the granting of the Venia legendi for inorganic and analytical chemistry at the Mathematical and Natural Science Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University . From 1970 he was a lecturer at the Westphalian Wilhelms University and from 1970 to 1971 he was a temporary professor at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen . In 1971 Gruehn was appointed Scientific Councilor and Professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University, but only a few weeks later accepted the call to the full professorship for inorganic and analytical chemistry in Giessen.

In addition to his academic work, Gruehn, who was often called "Sir Reginald" by his colleagues, was firmly integrated into the academic administration. He was head of the central committee for graduate support and was Dean of the Department of Chemistry from 1974, 1983 to 1984 and 1990 to 1992 and thus also a member of the Senate of Giessen University. As a member of the 3rd to 10th convents of the University of Giessen, Gruehn also took part in 67 convention sessions from 1975 to 1990 and was thus able to exert a decisive influence on the development of university policy in a time that was not unproblematic for the subject of chemistry. In 1991 he became managing director of the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry. In addition, he was an active member of the Society for Natural Scientists and Doctors and the Upper Hessian Society for Natural Science and Medicine, of which he was chairman for several years, and headed the solid-state chemistry section of the Society of German Chemists. Gruehn retired in 1998 and died in 2002 after a short, serious illness. Gruehn was married and had two children; the landscape ecologist and landscape planner Dietwald Gruehn is his son.

meaning

In 1967 Gruehn discovered two new niobium oxide fluorides. He succeeded in making a name for himself as a pioneer in the field of structural analysis of inorganic solids using high-resolution electron microscopy. The works “High-resolution transmission electron microscopy - a still young investigation method in solid-state chemistry” (1980), “On the way to imaging atoms - high-resolution transmission electron microscopy of solids” (1982), “Can Electron Microscopy be a Help in Preparative Solid State Chemistry? "(1982)," Experiences with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy "(1985) and" Redox Reactions on Oxides having "Block" Structures: High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy "(1988). Gruehn contributed a contribution to the textbook "Investigation Methods in Chemistry" by Naumann and Heller, which appeared in several editions, on "High-resolution transmission electron microscopy as an aid in solid-state chemistry" (1986, 1990, 1995). Other focal points of his research were preparative solid-state chemistry, thermochemistry and methodical developments in chemical transport and high-temperature superconductors. His life's work includes - in addition to supervising 64 dissertations - around 240 publications.

literature

  • German Biographical Encyclopedia , 2nd edition, 2006, Volume 4, p. 200. KG Saur Verlag. Munich.
  • Memorial colloquium for chemist Reginald Gruehn , Gießener Anzeiger, July 9, 2003, p. 29.
  • Oberhessische Naturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift 61 (2002), p. 64.
  • Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 168, July 23, 2002, p. 18.
  • Lexicon of Baltic German Scientists - A biographical-bibliographical handbook , B. Filaretow (1994), pp. 87/88. Cologne.
  • Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar , 16th ed., 1992, Volume 1, p. 1138. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin.
  • The University of Münster 1780-1980 , Ed. H. Dollinger, 1980, p. 451. Aschendorff, Münster.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. on this the work "Solid preparation by chemical transport - interpretation and control with the cooperative transport model" (1983), "On the Chemical Transport of LaOCl as Boundary Phase in the System La 2 O 3 / Cl 2 " (1986), "Preparation and Properties of Lanthanide Oxychlorotantalates and Related Compounds "(1991) and" Die Oxychlorotitanate LnTiO 3 Cl der Rare Earth Ln = Sm-Lu "(1993).
personal data
SURNAME Gruehn, Reginald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gruehn, Werner Reginald Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorpat , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 2002
Place of death to water