Hans Meerwein

Infobox Scientist
name = Hans Meerwein
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birth_date = birth date|1879|5|20
birth_place = Hamburg, Germany
death_date = death date and age|1965|10|24|1879|5|20
death_place = Marburg, Germany
residence = Germany
nationality = German
ethnicity =
field = Organic chemistry
work_institutions = University of Bonn,
University of Königsberg,
University of Marburg
alma_mater = University of Bonn
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students = Georg Wittig,
Siegfried Hünig,
Karl Dimroth
known_for = Meerwein's salt
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prizes =
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Hans Meerwein (May 20 1879, Hamburg, Germany – October 24 1965, Marburg, Germany) was an German chemist. [cite journal
title = Hans Meerwein. 1879-1965
author = Karl Dimroth
journal = Chemische Berichte
volume = 100
issue = 1
pages = LV–XCIV
year = 1898
url =
doi = 10.1002/cber.19671000143] .

His name is still present in the names of several reactions and reagents, for example the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction, the Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement. [cite journal
author = Hans Meerwein
title = Über den Reaktionsmechanismus der Umwandlung von Borneol in Camphen; [Dritte Mitteilung über Pinakolinumlagerungen.]
journal = Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie
year =1914
volume =405
pages =129–175
doi = 10.1002/jlac.19144050202] and the Meerwein's salt.

Life and work

After his training as chemotechnician from 1898 till 1890 at the Fresenius chemistry school he started studying chemistry at the University of Bonn. After finishing his PhD with Richard Anschütz he did some research at the University of Berlin before coming back to Bonn where he became professor in 1914. From 1922 till 1928 he was professor for organic chemistry at the University of Königsberg. The last change in his academic career was to the University of Marburg. The war devastated the Institute and Meerwein was planing the rebuilding which was finisched in 1953, the year he retired from lecturing. He conducted experimental work with the help of two postdocs until his death in 1965.

His greatest impact upon organic chemistry was to propose the carbocation 2 as a reactive intermediate, originally as a rationalization of the racemization of isobornyl chloride 1 catalysed by a Lewis acid such as SnCl₄. His proposed mechanism for racemization involved s subsequent a 2,6 hydride transfer in the cation; the alternative [1,2] methyl migration, now actually known as a Wagner-Meerwein shift, was in fact suggested for the first time by Houben and Pfankuch [" Annalen", 1931, 489, 193; 1933, 501, 219-246, DOI|10.1002/jlac.19335010113] .

External links

* [http://www.uni-marburg.de/profil/Geschichte/Viten/meerwein Honors for Meerwein in Marburg]
* [http://www.chemlin.de/news/aug06/hans-meerwein.htm biography at chemlin]

References