🎁HBT Herbert W. Roesky who turns 90 today. He studied chemistry at the University of Goettingen
@uniGoettingen from 1957 onwards and earned his PhD in 1963 for work with Oskar Glemser on the high pressure
#fluorination of metals. After a postdoc with Earl Muetterties in the legendary Du Pont Laboratories in Wilmington, DE/USA he did his habilitation in record time in Göttingen in 1967. In 1971 he became Professor of
#InorganicChemistry at the Goethe University Frankfurt, and in 1980 he returned to his Alma Mater in Goettingen where he remained ever since and discovered numerous inorganic compounds, reactions and mechanisms until very recently—see a 2025 publication on Si and Ge chemistry in Chem. Comm. Main group elements and transition metals were researched in his group regardless whether the products were
#organometallics or
#CoordinationCompounds. Herbert Roesky could entertain huge audiences with experimental lectures, and based on those he published books like “Spectacular Chemical Experiments” in order to popularize chemistry. The Christel and Herbert W. Roesky Foundation promotes main group chemistry through a biannual Award. He himself was honored through numerous awards, honorary degrees, and memberships in academies and learned societies; the highest award of the GDCh
@GDCh_aktuell, the Honorary Membership he received in 2021.
ALT Herbert Walter Roesky 2011 · photo by Biswarup Ganguly / Wikimedia