Helmut Zahn

Helmut Zahn ( born June 13, 1916 in Erlangen, † November 14, 2004 in Aachen ) was a German chemist who was known by the first synthesis of insulin ( 1963).

The Nobel Prize was not awarded to him; for the elucidation of the structure of insulin that was founded in 1958 awarded to Frederick Sanger. The statutes of the Nobel committees do not allow to give more times for a research subject Nobel Prizes.

Life and work

He studied chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and in 1940 received his doctorate. His doctoral supervisor was Egon Elöd. In 1948, the Habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, and in 1952 the appointment as the first director of the newly founded ' German Wool Research Institute ( DWI) ' at the RWTH Aachen. In 1957 he was appointed to the newly established chair of Textile Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University and professor emeritus in 1981, he conducted the business of the DWI but continued until 1985. He was succeeded by Hartwig hump.

Tooth was (co-) author of over 700 publications. In his institute over 100 promotions were made.

He had honorary doctorates, among others the universities of Barcelona, Belfast, Bradford, Dusseldorf, Leeds and Liege. In 1979 he was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, 1987, the Wilhelm Exner Medal