Kuhn, Richard

Kuhn, Richard (rĭkh`ärt kn), 1900–1967, Austrian chemist, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Heidelberg. For his research on the carotinoids (he prepared eight of them in pure form) and on vitamins (he isolated riboflavin, or B₂) he was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A Nazi decree prevented his acceptance of the award until after World War II. Kuhn also isolated vitamin B₆.

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Kuhn, Richard 

Born Dec. 3, 1900, in Vienna; died July 31, 1967, in Heidelberg. German chemist and biochemist.

Kuhn studied (1919–22) and worked with R. Wilstatter in Munich. He became a professor at the Swiss Technical Higher School and director of the chemical division of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Zurich in 1926. He was appointed professor at the University of Heidelberg and head of the chemistry department of the Max Planck Institute in 1928.

Kuhn determined the structure of and synthesized many natural substances, including about 300 plant pigments. He investigated the connection between the chemical structure of unsaturated compounds and their physical properties (optical, magnetic, and dielectric). Kuhn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938 for his research on carotenoids and vitamins.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Fermenty. Moscow-Leningrad, 1932. (Jointly with K. Oppenheimer; translated from German.)
“Veshchestva, stimuliruiushchie oplodotvorenie i opredeliaiushchie pol u rastenii i zhivotnykh.” Uspekhi sovremennoi biologii, 1941, vol. 14, issue 1. (Translated from German.)

REFERENCE

Farber, E. Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry. London-New York, 1963.