Armin Weiss (or Weiß in German script) (5 November 1927 – 7 December 2010) was a German

inorganic chemist Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...

and politician of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

Life

Weiss was born and raised in Stefling (near

Nittenau Nittenau () is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Regen, 18 km southeast of Schwandorf, and 24 km northeast of Regensburg. It is the "sister city" of Lake Zurich, Illinois. ...

), not far from

Wackersdorf Wackersdorf is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany. It is famous for playing host to rounds of the CIK-FIA Karting European Championship. See also * Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant *Anti-nuclear movement in Germ ...

, where during the 1980s, the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

nuclear industry began building the

nuclear reprocessing plant Wackersdorf The Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant (german: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage Wackersdorf, abbreviated WAA Wackersdorf) is a reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf in Bavaria, Germany. Because of protests the plant was never completed. Today it is an ...

. Upset by this move, Weiss took leave from his position as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at

Ludwig Maximilians University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in Munich, and began making public appearances in opposition to the plant. Eventually the construction of Wackersdorf was stopped. Later, as a member of the

Bavarian state government The politics of Bavaria takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany includ ...

, he continued to oppose nuclear plants. In 2007, Professor Weiss received the Nuclear-Free Future Lifetime Achievement Award.

Work

The intercalation in

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

minerals was major research interest during the start of his academic career.

Urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important r ...

has been used as compound for the production of high quality

china China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

for a long time but the mechanism of action was first described by Weiss in 1961.

References

Angewandte Chemie Volume 73, Issue 22 , Pages 736 - 1961 Eine Schichteinschlußverbindung von Kaolinit mit Harnstoff Armin Weiss Angewandte Chemie Volume 75, Issue 16-17 , Pages 755 - 7621963 Ein Geheimnis des chinesischen Porzellans Prof. Dr. Armin Weiss --> {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Armin 1927 births 2010 deaths German anti–nuclear power activists 20th-century German chemists Politicians from Bavaria University of Regensburg alumni University of Würzburg alumni Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Academic staff of Heidelberg University People from Schwandorf (district)