Heribert Offermanns (born October 24, 1937) is a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and former member of the board of the Degussa AG.

Life and work

Offermanns was born in Merkstein. He studied chemistry at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH Aachen). He worked on his doctoral thesis as assistant to Friedrich Asinger on the border between organic and technical chemistry. After receiving his doctorate he worked afterwards on industrial chemistry and pharmaceutical research at the Degussa AG and at Degussa Antwerpen NV and Degussa Inc., New York. In 1976 Offermanns was appointed as member of the management board of Degussa AG with the responsibility for research and development. Offermanns remained a member of the board until 2000. He managed the development and expansion of Degussa's research center in Hanau-Wolfgang.

Honours

Heribert Offermanns was the president of the

German Chemical Society The German Chemical Society () is a learned society and professional association founded in 1949 to represent the interests of German chemists in local, national and international contexts. GDCh "brings together people working in chemistry and th ...

and a member of the Senate of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

(DFG). He was also a member of the board of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and the

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...

. Offermanns was board member of the

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure fo ...

Foundation and chairman of the board of trustees of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart. Since 1988 he was Honorary Professor at the

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

in Frankfurt. Heribert Offermanns has published numerous scientific papers on

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and on the production and use of

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscosity, viscous than Properties of water, water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usua ...

, he holds also several

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

Awards

* Heribert Offermanns received an honorary doctorate in engineering at the

RWTH Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

* 1997: Carl Duisberg Medal of the

* 2001: Karl Winnacker Prize of the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

* 2011: Officer's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

Publications

* * * * H. Offermanns: ''A plea for basic research - Utility is just a second-order moment'', in: ''

Chemie in unserer Zeit ''Angewandte Chemie'' (, meaning "Applied Chemistry") is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). Publishing formats include feature-length ...

'' 2002, ''36'', 306–309. * H. Offermanns: ''Wasserstoffperoxid - Verwendung in Umweltschutz und Synthese'', in: ''

'' 2000, ''34'', 150–159. * * * H. Offermanns, F. Asinger: ''Synthesen mit Ketonen, Schwefel und Ammoniak bzw. Aminen und chemisches Verhalten der Reaktionsprodukte'', Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln und Opladen, 1966. * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Offermanns, Heribert 20th-century German chemists Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1937 births Living people 21st-century German chemists Scientists from North Rhine-Westphalia RWTH Aachen University alumni