CHEMIST

Hermann Kolbe

1818 - 1884

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Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (27 September 1818 – 25 November 1884) was a German chemist and academic, and a major contributor to the birth of modern organic chemistry. He was a professor at Marburg and Leipzig. Kolbe was the first to apply the term synthesis in a chemical context, and contributed to the philosophical demise of vitalism through synthesis of the organic substance acetic acid from carbon disulfide, and also contributed to the development of structural theory. This was done via modifications to the idea of "radicals" and accurate prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols, and to the emerging array of organic reactions through his Kolbe electrolysis of carboxylate salts, the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction in the preparation of aspirin and the Kolbe nitrile synthesis. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Hermann Kolbe is the 152nd most popular chemist (up from 200th in 2019), the 603rd most popular biography from Germany (up from 1,060th in 2019) and the 28th most popular German Chemist.

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Hermann Kolbe ranks 152 out of 602. Before him are Kurt Wüthrich, Johann Rudolf Glauber, Glenn T. Seaborg, Sune Bergström, Casimir Funk, and Marshall Warren Nirenberg. After him are Harry Kroto, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Robert W. Holley, Paul D. Boyer, Feodor Lynen, and Antoni Grabowski.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1818, Hermann Kolbe ranks 13. Before him are Ivan Turgenev, Charles Gounod, Jacob Burckhardt, Marius Petipa, Lewis H. Morgan, and Tewodros II. After him are Rudolf von Jhering, Adolf Anderssen, Sophie of Württemberg, Angelo Secchi, Leconte de Lisle, and August Wilhelm von Hofmann. Among people deceased in 1884, Hermann Kolbe ranks 6. Before him are Gregor Mendel, Bedřich Smetana, Maria Anna of Savoy, Elias Lönnrot, and Marie Taglioni. After him are Cetshwayo kaMpande, Paul Morphy, Johann Gustav Droysen, Charles Adolphe Wurtz, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and Marie Bashkirtseff.

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Hermann Kolbe ranks 603 out of 7,253. Before him are Sophia of Nassau (1836), Ernst Lubitsch (1892), Hans Spemann (1869), Theodor W. Hänsch (1941), Ludwig Tieck (1773), and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1628). After him are Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743), August Weismann (1834), Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (1837), Gustav Heinemann (1899), Samuel von Pufendorf (1632), and Robert Ritter von Greim (1892).

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Among CHEMISTS In Germany

Among chemists born in Germany, Hermann Kolbe ranks 28. Before him are Heinrich Otto Wieland (1877), Manfred Eigen (1927), Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (1780), Gerhard Ertl (1936), Julius Lothar Meyer (1830), and Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604). After him are Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743), Feodor Lynen (1911), Georg Wittig (1897), Felix Hoffmann (1868), Gerhard Herzberg (1904), and Robert Huber (1937).

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