Carl Dietrich Harries (5 August 1866 – 3 November 1923) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

born in

Luckenwalde Luckenwalde (; Upper and dsb, Łukowc) is the capital of the Teltow-Fläming district in the German state of Brandenburg. It is situated on the Nuthe river north of the Fläming Heath, at the eastern rim of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park, abou ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

. He received his doctorate in 1892. In 1900, he married Hertha von Siemens, daughter of the electrical genius

Werner von Siemens Ernst Werner Siemens (von Siemens from 1888; ; ; 13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. Siemens's name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He foun ...

, and the inventor of one of the earliest

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

generators. In 1904, he moved as full professor to the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

, where he remained until 1916. During that time he published numerous papers on

ozonolysis In organic chemistry, ozonolysis is an organic reaction where the unsaturated bonds of alkenes (), alkynes (), or azo compounds () are cleaved with ozone (). Alkenes and alkynes form organic compounds in which the multiple carbon–carbon bond ...

. His major publication detailing ozonolysis was published in Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1905, 343, 311. Dissatisfied with academic life and having failed to obtain either of two positions at universities, he left academia to become director of research at Siemens and Halske. He died on 3 November 1923 of complications following surgery for

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. His great-grandfather was the German

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Heinrich Harries Heinrich Harries (9 September 1762, Flensburg – 28 September 1802) was a German Protestant pastor from the Duchy of Schleswig, then under Danish sovereignty. Harries wrote the lyrics for "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" for King Christian VII of ...

Accomplishments

He investigated

polymers A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic an ...

and

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

. He showed that rubber consisted of repeating units. He established experimental procedures for ozonolysis, demonstrated the generality of the reaction of

unsaturated compound In chemistry, a saturated compound is a chemical compound (or ion) that resists the addition reactions, such as hydrogenation, oxidative addition, and binding of a Lewis base. The term is used in many contexts and for many classes of chemical c ...

s with ozone, and showed that ozone could be used for the

synthesis Synthesis or synthesize may refer to: Science Chemistry and biochemistry *Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors ** Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organ ...

of a variety of compounds.

References

* 1866 births 1923 deaths People from Luckenwalde People from the Kingdom of Prussia 20th-century German chemists University of Kiel faculty 19th-century German chemists {{Germany-chemist-stub