William Theilheimer (1914 – 14 July 2005), who was born in Augsburg, Germany, played a significant role in the history of what is now known as

chemoinformatics Cheminformatics (also known as chemoinformatics) refers to use of physical chemistry theory with computer and information science techniques—so called "''in silico''" techniques—in application to a range of descriptive and prescriptive proble ...

Life

He received his Ph.D in organic chemistry from Basel University, Switzerland in 1940. Being Jewish, Basel provided a safe haven for him during the Second World War and he stayed there until 1947 as Assistant to Professor Hans Friedrich Albrecht Erlenmeyer (1900 - 1967), the son of

Friedrich Gustav Carl Emil Erlenmeyer Friedrich Gustav Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (July 14, 1864 – February 8, 1921), also known as Emil Erlenmeyer, Jr., was a German chemist and the discoverer of the Erlenmeyer-Plöchl azlactone and amino acid synthesis. He was the son of Richard August ...

(Emil Jr.) and grandson of

Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (28 June 182522 January 1909), known simply as Emil Erlenmeyer, was a German chemist known for contributing to the early development of the theory of structure, formulating the Erlenmeyer rule, and designing ...

(Emil Sr.). During his time there he compiled the data for the first two volumes of "Synthetische Methoden der Organische Chemie" published by S. Karger Verlag in Basel in 1946 and 1948. These built on the system of

Conrad Weygand Conrad Weygand (8 November 1890 – 18 April 1945) was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Leipzig. In 1938 he put forward a method for the classification of chemical reactions based on bond breakage and formation during the reaction. ...

(Organic Preparations, Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1945) for grouping similar reactions together, but used "Theilheimer reaction symbols" that summarised the most significant bond formed, the reaction type ( addition reaction,

rearrangement reaction In organic chemistry, a rearrangement reaction is a broad class of organic reactions where the carbon skeleton of a molecule is rearranged to give a structural isomer of the original molecule. Often a substituent moves from one atom to another ...

, exchange reaction/ substitution reaction or elimination reaction), and the bond broken or fragment lost, as well as a specific reagent order based on the

periodic table The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...

. Later volumes were sponsored by a number of American chemical and pharmaceutical firms, most notably

Hoffmann-LaRoche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

, Inc., who provided library facilities at their site in Nutley, New Jersey from 1948 up to (and after) Theilheimer's retirement in 1981. His books were developed as modern chemical reaction databases in the 1980s by MDL ( Molecular Design Limited) and ORAC (Organic Reactions Accessed by Computer); both of these companies were taken over by Robert Maxwell's Maxwell Communications Corporation. Theilheimer received the Herman Skolnik Award of the ACS Division of Chemical Information in 1987.In Memoriam - William Theilheimer - ACS Division of Chemical Information (CINF)
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theilheimer, William 1914 births 2005 deaths 20th-century German chemists Scientists from Augsburg University of Basel alumni Academic staff of the University of Basel German emigrants to Switzerland