Hans Meerwein | |
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| Born | (1879-05-20)May 20, 1879 |
| Died | October 24, 1965(1965-10-24) (aged 86) |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Organic chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Bonn, University of Königsberg, University of Marburg |
| Doctoral students | Georg Wittig |
Hans Meerwein (May 20, 1879 inHamburg, Germany – October 24, 1965 inMarburg,Germany) was a Germanchemist.[1] Several reactions and reagents bear his name, most notably theMeerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction, theWagner–Meerwein rearrangement, theMeerwein arylation reaction, andMeerwein's salt.
His father was the architect,Wilhelm Emil Meerwein. He originally trained to be a chemistry technician or 'chemotechnician' at theFresenius University of Applied Sciences (between 1898 and 1900) before studying for a chemistry degree at theUniversity of Bonn. After finishing his PhD withRichard Anschütz he worked at theUniversity of Berlin, before returning to Bonn where he became professor in 1914. From 1922 till 1928 he was professor for organic chemistry at theUniversity of Königsberg. The last change in his academic career was to theUniversity of Marburg. The war devastated the Institute and Meerwein was planning the rebuilding which was finished 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 thecarbocation2 as a reactive intermediate, originally as a rationalization of theracemization ofisobornyl chloride1 catalysed by a Lewis acid such as SnCl4. His proposed mechanism for racemization involved a subsequent [2,6]hydride transfer, which allows the carbocation to be located at either freak of these two symmetric positions. An alternative mechanism—a [1,2] methyl migration,[clarification needed] a type of reaction now known as a Wagner–Meerwein shift—was in fact suggested for the first time byJosef Houben and Pfankuch.[2]
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