Walter Giger

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Walter Giger (born September 6, 1943 in Zurich ) is a Swiss chemist . He worked at the Federal Institute for Water Supply, Wastewater Treatment and Water Protection ( Eawag ), where he headed the Chemical Hazardous Substances department. Since July 1, 1995, he has also been Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the ETH Zurich . In 2005 he retired and founded his own company in order to continue researching in his field.

Giger was one of the first to develop methods for trace analysis of organic environmental chemicals . Early on, he investigated the behavior of trace substances in waste treatment, especially in sewage treatment plants . In 1984 he was the first to discover that nonylphenol ethoxylates are broken down in sewage treatment plants to form 4-nonylphenols , which are toxic to many organisms, and that significant quantities of them end up in water. After many further studies and voluntary self-commitments by industry, the use of nonylphenol ethoxylates and nonylphenols in the EU was severely restricted in 2003.

In September 2008, the magazine Environmental Science & Technology dedicated an issue to him.

Scientific career

Giger received his doctorate in 1971 at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the ETH Zurich. In 1972 he was a postdoc at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . In the same year he took up a position at Eawag in Dübendorf . In the meantime he was visiting scholar at Stanford University and in 1987 lecturer at the University of Karlsruhe . The latter made him an honorary professor in 1991. In 2001 he was accepted as a member of the ISI Highly Cited Researchers Database .

Giger is a board member of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Swiss Chemical Society .

literature

  • Naomi Lubick: Scaling Peaks: The Life and Science of Walter Giger . Environmental Science & Technology, 42 (17), 2008, doi : 10.1021 / es8018989 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jennifer A. Field, Robert P. Eganhouse: In honor of Walter Giger: setting standards of excellence in environmental organic chemistry . Environmental Science & Technology, 42 (17), 2008, doi : 10.1021 / es8020777
  2. ^ W. Giger, PH Brunner, C. Schaffner: 4-Nonylphenol in sewage sludge: accumulation of toxic metabolites from nonionic surfactants . Science , 225 (4662), 1984, 623-625, doi : 10.1126 / science.6740328
  3. ↑ Official Journal of the European Union: DIRECTIVE 2003/53 / EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of June 18, 2003 on the 26th amendment to Directive 76/769 / EEC on restrictions on the placing on the market and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations (nonylphenol , Nonylphenol ethoxylate and cement) (PDF) , July 17, 2003
  4. ↑ Environmental Science & Technology, 42 (17), 2008 ("Walter Giger Tribute")
  5. ^ Walter Giger: Contribution to nitrogen-14 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , 1971, Diss. ETH Zurich, No. 4691; doi : 10.3929 / ethz-a-000087791 , ISBN 3-260-03071-9 .
  6. ↑ 2001 Highly Cited Researchers. December 31, 2001, accessed March 26, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Analytical Chemistry Division - Executive Board
personal data
SURNAME Giger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss chemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich