Karl Ziegler was born in Helsa near Kassel in Germany, on November 26, 1898. He graduated in 1920 under Prof. von Auwers at the University of Marburg/Lahn, and qualified as a lecturer in 1923. After working for a short period at the University of Frankfurt/Main, he spent 10 years as a lecturer at Heidelberg. His…

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer was born on October 31, 1835, in Berlin, as the son of Johann Jakob Baeyer and Eugenie née Hitzig. He came from a family distinguished both in literature and the natural sciences. His father, a lieutenant-general, was the originator of the European system of geodetic measurement. Even as a…

Paul Karrer was born in Moscow on April 21, 1889. His parents, Paul Karrer and Julie Lerch, were Swiss nationals and in 1892 the family returned to Switzerland where he received his early education at Wildegg and at the grammar school in Lenzburg, Aarau, where he matriculated in 1908. He studied chemistry at University of…

Giulio Natta was born at Imperia on February 26, 1903. He graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan in 1924 and passed the examinations entitling him to teach there in 1927. In 1933 he was established on the staff of Pavia University as a full professor and at the same time was appointed…

Archer John Porter Martin was born on March 1st, 1910, in London where his father was a general medical practitioner. He attended Bedford School from 1921 to 1929 when he entered Cambridge University to graduate in 1932. After a year in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory he obtained a post at the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory, where…

Theodor (The) Svedberg was born at Fleräng, Valbo, in the county of Gävleborg, Sweden on August 30, 1884, as the son of Elias Svedberg, a works manager, and his wife, Augusta, née Alstermark. He attended the Köping School, the Örebro High School and Gothenburg Modern School, where he passed his student examination in December 1903,…

Richard Laurence Millington Synge was born at Liverpool on October 28th, 1914, as the son of Laurence Millington Synge, of Liverpool Stock Exchange, and Katharine Charlotte Swan. In 1928 he went to Winchester College, where he studied mainly classics until 1931, thereafter natural science. In 1933 he entered Trinity College, University of Cambridge and studied…

Hermann Staudinger was born in Worms on the 23rd of March 1881. His father was Dr. Franz Staudinger. Staudinger was educated in Worms, matriculated in 1899, and continued his studies first at the University of Halle, later at Darmstadt and Munich. He graduated at Halle in 1903 and qualified for inauguration as academic lecturer under…

George de Hevesy was born in Budapest on August 1st, 1885, the son of Louis de Hevesy, Court Counsellor and Eugénie, née Baroness Schosberger. After matriculating at the Gymnasium of the Piarist Order in 1903 he studied at Budapest University and Berlin Technical University and he gained his doctor’s degree at the University of Freiburg…

Manfred Eigen was born in Bochum on 9 May 1927, the son of the chamber musician Ernst Eigen and his wife Hedwig, née Feld. He received his schooling at the Bochum humanistic Gymnasium. In the autumn of 1945 he commenced the physics and chemistry course at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and obtained his doctorate…