Richard Kuhn

Richard Johann Kuhn (German pronunciation: [ˈʁɪçaʁt ˈkuːn] ; 3 December 1900 – 31 July 1967) was an Austrian-German biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1938 "for his work on carotenoids and vitamins".

Early life and education

Kuhn was born on 3 December 1900 in Vienna, Austria, where he attended grammar school and high school. His interest in chemistry surfaced early; however he had many interests and decided late to study chemistry. Between 1910 and 1918 he was a schoolmate of Wolfgang Pauli, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1945.

Beginning in 1918, Kuhn attended lectures at the University of Vienna in chemistry. He finished his chemistry studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) and received his doctoral degree in 1922 with Richard Willstätter for a scientific work on enzyme specificity.

Career

After graduating, Kuhn continued his scientific career, first in Munich from 1925, then at the ETH Zurich 1926–1929, and from 1929 onwards at the University of Heidelberg, where he was head of the chemistry department beginning in 1937.

Kuhn's areas of study included: investigations of theoretical problems of organic chemistry (stereochemistry of aliphatic and aromatic compounds; syntheses of polyenes and cumulenes; constitution and colour; the acidity of hydrocarbons), as well as extensive fields in biochemistry (carotenoids; flavins; vitamins and enzymes). Specifically, he carried out important work on vitamin B2 and the antidermatitis vitamin B6.

In 1929 he became Principal of the Institute for Chemistry at the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research (which, since 1950, has been renamed the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg).