Julius Tröger (10 October 1862 – 29 July 1942) was 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 ...

. Tröger studied at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

from 1882 till 1888. During his Ph.D. he synthesized in 1887 2,8-dimethyl-6''H'',12''H''-5,11-methanodibenzo- 'b'',''f''1,5]diazocine from p-toluidine, ''p''-toluidine and

formaldehyde Formaldehyde ( , ) (systematic name methanal) is an organic compound with the chemical formula and structure , more precisely . The compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde. It is stored as ...

. This substance is now known as the

Tröger's base Tröger's base is a white solid tetracyclic organic compound. Its chemical formula is . Tröger's base and its analogs are soluble in various organic solvents and strong acidic aqueous solutions due to their protonation. It is named after Julius ...

. Because he was not able to give a structure of the new compound

Johannes Wislicenus Johannes Wislicenus (; 24 June 18355 December 1902) was a German chemist, most famous for his work in early stereochemistry. Biography The son of the radical Protestant theologian Gustav Wislicenus, Johannes was born on 24 June 1835 in Kleine ...

, the new director of the department, assigned a mediocre grade for Trögers thesis. It took another 48 years to confirm the structure of Tröger's base. In 1888 he started working at the

Braunschweig University of Technology TU Braunschweig (, unofficially ''University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology'') is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a membe ...

where he stayed until his retirement in 1928. Tröger died in Brunswick.

References

* 1862 births 1942 deaths 20th-century German chemists Scientists from Leipzig Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of TU Braunschweig 19th-century German chemists {{Germany-chemist-stub