Wilhelm Keim (1 December 1934 – 30 September 2018) was a German chemist and professor of chemistry at the Technical Chemistry and former director of the ''Institute for Technical and Petrol Chemistry'' at

RWTH Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Wilhelm Keim was one of the key figures in the development of the ''SHOP'' – process (

Shell higher olefin process The Shell higher olefin process (SHOP) is a chemical process for the production of linear alpha olefins via ethylene oligomerization and olefin metathesis invented and exploited by Royal Dutch Shell.''Industrial Organic Chemistry'', Klaus Weisserm ...

). SHOP-olefines have a broad range of applications in industrial chemistry, e.g. for the modification of

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including b ...

as ethylene-alpha-olefine-copolymere, as source for synthetic fatty alcohols or olefine sulfonates. : SHOP

He studied chemistry at the Münster and Saarbrücken University. He earned his PhD degree from Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, having studied under

Karl Ziegler Karl Waldemar Ziegler (26 November 1898 – 12 August 1973) was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963, with Giulio Natta, for work on polymers. The Nobel Committee recognized his "excellent work on organometallic compound ...

. After several years in the chemical industry he became professor at the

, where he was the director of the Institute for Technical and Petrol chemistry. He retired in 2001. Keim has received numerous prestigious honours including member of board of the Degussa AG, member of the board of directors of the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) till 1996, chairman of the board of the DGMK Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Erdöl, Erdgas und Kohle e.V., honorary professor of the technical university in Dalian (China), honorary professor of the university in Hangzhou (China), adjunct professor Dharan King Fahd University (Saudi Arabia), Dr. Honoris Causa

Université Lille Nord de France The Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) Lille Nord de France (formerly Université Lille Nord de France) was a French Groups of Universities and Institutions ( COMUE) spread over multiple campuses and centered in Lille (North - Hauts ...

, Dr. Honoris Causa, member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

, and honorary member of the DECHEMA.Carl Engler award 1999
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Publications

* Grundlagen der industriellen Chemie : techn. Produkte u. Prozesse / Wilhelm Keim; Arno Behr ; Günter Schmitt, (Salle) ; 3-7941-2553-3 (Sauerländer)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keim, Wilhelm 1934 births 2018 deaths People from Oberhausen 20th-century German chemists Members of Academia Europaea Academic staff of RWTH Aachen University Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences