Rudolf Wiechert

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Rudolf Wiechert (born March 3, 1928 in Stendal ; † January 15, 2013 in Berlin ) was a German chemist and inventor .

Life

Wiechert was drafted into the flak helper as a student in 1944. As a member of the Wehrmacht he was taken prisoner by the Soviets and immediately returned to school after his release. In 1947 he passed his Abitur in Stendal and began to study geography and German at the Free University of Berlin , but switched to chemistry in 1949. In 1954 he also wrote his diploma thesis in Willy Lautsch's working group. With a dissertation for the synthesis of high polymers with preformed inclusion cavities he became in 1956 a doctorate . From 1957 Wiechert worked as a chemist for Schering AG ; In 1963 he was appointed head of the steroid chemistry department . Wiechert completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Berlin in 1968 with a paper on 1,2-methylene steroids, and three years later he was made an adjunct professor .

plant

The pharmaceuticals synthesized by Wiechert and employees at Schering AG include cyproterone acetate and drospirenone . Significant advances in synthetic organic chemistry are also associated with his name. In this way he was able to realize the enantioselective cyclization catalyzed by ( S ) - proline to the Hajos-Wiechert ketone , a building block for the rings , independently and around the same time as Zoltan Hajos from Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. in Nutley , NJ (USA) C and D of the steroid framework . This was the decisive starting signal for a completely new area of ​​research, organocatalysis , which today is also linked to the Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction .

Wiechert's scientific oeuvre comprises 331 patents and 159 publications.

Honors (selection)

literature

personal data
SURNAME Wiechert, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Stendal
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 2013
Place of death Berlin