Werner Kern (chemist)

Josef Werner Kern ( born February 9, 1906 in Tiengen, now part of Waldshut- Tiengen; † 18 January 1985) was a German chemist.

Life

The son of a lawyer from 1924 to 1928 studied chemistry and physics in Freiburg and Heidelberg. His graduation in 1930 with Hermann Staudinger, in which the Habilitation on " The polyacrylic acid, a model of the protein " joined. From 1939 to 1945 he worked for the plastics department Hoechst before he worked as a lecturer in Freiburg from 1945.

He was in 1946 appointed professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, where he became professor emeritus in 1974. Core was in 1971 with Günter Schulz Victor the first winner of the Hermann- Staudinger - works price of the German Chemical Society.

Core is considered one of the most important pioneers in the field of preparative macromolecular chemistry. His work in the field of formaldehyde polymers laid the foundation for industrial polymers, such Hostaform C from Hoechst. Even in an article from 1938 about crosslinking copolymerization of acrylic acid with divinyl laid the foundation for the core technology of today termed " superabsorbent " products that are used, for example in diapers wide application.