Günther Ohloff (21 July 1924 in Tapiau near Königsberg – 9 November 2005 in Bernex near Geneva) was a prominent

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

fragrance chemist.

Life

Ohloff was raised in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. When World War II erupted, he served in the German military, serving on the Eastern Front. He was severely wounded during the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

. After the war he studied

Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

at the University of Königsberg and Erlangen, as well as

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

at the

Technische Hochschule Dresden TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

. He received a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1951, based on his work on the condensation of terpenes with formaldehyde (

Prins reaction The Prins reaction is an organic reaction consisting of an electrophilic addition of an aldehyde or ketone to an alkene or alkyne followed by capture of a nucleophile or elimination of an H+ ion. The outcome of the reaction depends on reaction c ...

) unter the direction of Heinrich Wienhaus.Ferdinand Näf, Wilhelm Pickenhagen: ''Günther Ohloff (1924–2005)'', ''Nachrichten aus der Chemie'' ''54'' (2006), 335

Career

Ohloff began his career in 1951 with in Miltitz near Leipzig, at that time the most renowned flavor and fragrance company. In 1953 he left Eastern Germany to take a position with Dragoco,

Holzminden Holzminden (; nds, Holtsminne) is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Holzminden. It is located on the river Weser, which at this point forms the border with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Histor ...

. In 1959 he was offered a position at the

Max Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. It is located in the German town of Mülheim. Research The MPI CEC investigates fundamental chemical processes in energy transf ...

in Mülheim with Günther Otto Schenck. There he worked on the industrial-scale application of photooxygenation reactions employing

singlet oxygen Singlet oxygen, systematically named dioxygen(singlet) and dioxidene, is a gaseous inorganic chemical with the formula O=O (also written as or ), which is in a quantum state where all electrons are spin paired. It is kinetically unstable at ambie ...

, ene reactions and sigmatropic rearrangements. Ohloff returned to Industry in 1962, joining Firmenich in Geneva to head the process-research group. He was named the firm's research director and member of the board of directors in 1968, which he remained until his retirement in 1989. Ohloff's scientific work, which is documented in 228 publications and 111 patents,Wolfgang Giersch, Rerald Uhde, Ferdinand Näf: ''Günther Ohloff – Chemist & Pioneer in the Art of Perfumery'', Chimia ''58'' (2004) 65−66 centered around the structure elucidation and reactivity of terpenes, the industrial syntheses of odorants, and structure–odor correlations. He was the leading expert of empirical odor rules that predict the olfactory properties of new compounds, such as the "''triaxial rule of ambergris sensation''". He co-discovered the

Eschenmoser fragmentation The Eschenmoser fragmentation, first published in 1967, is the chemical reaction of α,β-epoxyketones (1) with aryl sulfonylhydrazines (2) to give alkynes (3) and carbonyl compounds (4). The reaction is named after the Swiss chemist Albert Eschenmo ...

, thus sometimes referred to '' Eschenmoser–Ohloff'' fragmentation. His small but condensed ''magnum opus'' on the chemistry of odorants "''Riechstoffe und Geruchssinn. Die molekulare Welt der Düfte''" was republished in English in 2011, completely revised and much extended by Wilhelm Pickenhagen and

Philip Kraft Philip Kraft (born in Rendsburg on March 24, 1969) is a Germans, German organic chemistry, organic chemist. Since 1996 he has been employed by Givaudan, a leading Flavor and Fragrance company, where he designs captive odorants for use in perfumes. ...

, as "''Scent and Chemistry – The Molecular World of Odors''".

Awards

* Leopold Ružička Award of the Swiss Chemical Society (1967) *Ernest Guenther Award of the American Chemical Society (1974) *Hackford Jones Prize of the British Society of Perfumery (1980) *Otto-Wallach-Medal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (1981) *R. H. Wright Award of the Simon Fraser University, Canada (1988)

Books

* Günther Ohloff: ''Riechstoffe und Geruchssinn. Die molekulare Welt der Düfte'', Springer, Berlin, 1990, . English translation: ''Scent and Fragrances: The Fascination of Odors and Their Chemical Perspectives'', Springer, New York, 1994, *Günther Ohloff: ''Irdische Düfte, himmlische Lust'', Birkhäuser, Basel, 2000, . English translation projected with Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zürich, for 2012 *Günther Ohloff: ''Düfte – Signale der Gefühlswelt'', Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zurich, 2004, *Günther Ohloff, Wilhelm Pickenhagen,

"''Scent and Chemistry – The Molecular World of Odors''"
Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zurich, 2011,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohloff, Gunther 20th-century German chemists 1924 births 2005 deaths Scientists from Königsberg