Richard Kuhn

Richard Kuhn (b. December 3, 1900, Vienna, Austria – d. August 1, 1967, Heidelberg, Germany) was an Austrian-German biochemist and Nobel laureate.

Life

Kuhn grew up in Vienna and attended grammar school and high school there. His interest in chemistry surfaced early, however he was universally interested and decided late to study chemistry. Beginning in 1918 he attended lectures at the University of Vienna in chemistry. He finished his chemistry studies at University of Munich and received his doctoral degree in 1922 with Richard Willstätter for a scientific work on enzymes.

After graduating Kuhn continued his scientific career, first in Munich, then at the ETH Zurich and from 1929 onwards at the University of Heidelberg, where he was head of the chemistry department beginning in 1937. In 1928 he married Daisy Hartmann and the couple subsequently had two sons and four daughters.

Scientific work and Nobel Prize

Kuhn's areas of study included: investigations of theoretical problems of organic chemistry (stereochemistry of aliphatic and aromatic compounds; syntheses of polyenes and cumulenes; constitution and colour; the acidity of hydrocarbons), as well as extensive fields in biochemistry (carotenoids; flavins; vitamins and enzymes). Specifically, he carried out important work on vitamin B2 and the antidermatitis vitamin B6.

In 1929 he became Principal of the Institute for Chemistry at the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research (which, since 1950, has been renamed the Max Planck Institut for Medical Research in Heidelberg. By 1937 he also took over the administration of this Institute.

In addition to these duties he also served as of Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Heidelberg, and for one year he was at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia as a Visiting Research Professor for Physiological chemistry.

He was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1938 for his "work on carotenoids and vitamins," but was unable to accept the award until after World War II. [1] Kuhn is also credited with the discovery of the deadly nerve agent Soman in 1944.

It is also worth noting that for a period of eight years (1910-1918) Richard Kuhn was a schoolmate of Wolfgang Pauli who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1945.

Kuhn was also editor of Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie from 1948.

Kuhn died in 1967 in Heidelberg, Germany, aged 66.

References and Notes

1. ^ NobelPrize.org