Otto Diels
German chemist (1876-1954) · Germany · Scientists · Died at 78
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Something wrong?A German chemist who cracked a deceptively elegant way to build six-carbon rings - a reaction so useful for making rubber and plastics that it still carries his name and earned him a Nobel.
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Otto Paul Hermann Diels was born on 23 January 1876 and educated at the University of Berlin, where he stayed on to work after completing his studies. Later employed at the University of Kiel, he teamed with Kurt Alder to develop the Diels-Alder reaction, a method for synthesizing cyclohexene that became foundational for manufacturing synthetic rubber and plastic. The pair shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1950 for the work. Diels remained at Kiel until his retirement in 1945, married with five children, and died on 7 March 1954.
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