Kurt Alder
Alder, Kurt (1902-1958) was a German chemist who, along with Otto Diels, devised the Diels-Alder reaction, a process to synthesize organic compounds. Chemical synthesis involves the combining of elements and compounds to duplicate naturally occurring substances or to produce compounds that do not occur naturally. The synthetic method devised by Alder and Diels proved to be valuable in a wide variety of commercial applications. The two scientists first reported the reaction, or diene synthesis, in 1928 and went on to share the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1950 for their work.
The synthesis contains a diene, a type of hydrocarbon with two double carbon bonds, and a dienophile, a “diene-loving” hydrocarbon with one double bond. When these two compounds are joined, they create a cyclic compound-with atoms arranged in a ring. In some cases, the cyclic compound closely relates to those occurring in nature and is a basis for products such as drugs and dyes. The reaction is also important in the manufacture of plastics and rubber and in petrochemical processes.
Alder spent his early years in an industrialized area of Upper Silesia, but at the end of World War I (1914-1918), his family moved to Berlin. Alder studied chemistry at the University of Berlin and at the University of Kiel, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1926. Diels supervised Alder's dissertation, and the two chemists collaborated in the laboratory. In the late 1920's, Alder conducted stereochemical studies that showed where the double-bond configuration in a Diels-Alder reaction takes place. Stereochemistry is the study of the arrangement of atoms in molecules.
In 1930, Alder became a chemistry reader at Kiel and in 1934, a professor. He left the academic world in 1936 to spend four years as research director at I. G. Farbenindustrie. During that time, he studied processes to produce synthetic rubber. In 1940, he accepted a position as professor of chemistry and director of the chemical institute at the University of Cologne, where he remained until his death in 1958.