Alder, Kurt

Alder, Kurt (äl`dər), 1902–58, German chemist, educated at Berlin and at Kiel. He was on the research staff of the Bayer Dye Works (1936–40) before becoming (1940) professor of chemistry and director of the chemical institute of the Univ. of Cologne. He shared with Otto Diels the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a process for the synthesis of complex organic compounds. The Diels-Alder reaction in its simplest form is the reaction of an alkene with a diene to form a cyclohexene.

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Alder, Kurt 

Born July 10, 1902; died June 20, 1958. German chemist specializing in organic chemistry.

Alder studied at the universities of Berlin and Kiel and received a doctorate in philosophy in 1926. From 1930 to 1936 he taught chemistry at the University of Kiel, and from 1936 to 1940 he was director of the research department of I. G. Farben Industrie in Leverkusen. From 1940 he was director of the chemistry institute at the University of Cologne. In 1928, Alder and O. Diels discovered and elaborated the principles of diene synthesis; they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1950. Alder also did research in stereochemistry, polymerization, and other areas.

WORKS

“Diene Synthesis and Related Reaction Types.” Nobel Lectures: Chemistry, 1942–1962. Amsterdam, London, New York, 1964. Page 267.