1
KARL FRIEDRICH BONHOEFFER (1899- ) A pkp in the fmnt rank of the young- physical chemists is int-ttonall conceded to Karl Bonho&e~, who was born at Br&n on 6nuary 13, 1899. After seming on the western fmn( dn&g 1917 - 18 he began his academic career. Trained phnd aU it Berlin, he took-his doctorate under Nernst in 1922 and $rY?; thereafter was appointed assistant to Haher at the Kaiser Wt helm Institut fiir obvsikillirchc Chemie. In 1930 he was selected to head the w&E in phvs*al chemistry at the Universit of Frankfurt and made such-an outstanding record that in 1434 he was honorrd by a call to kipzi as director of the Phwikalid-Chcmischu~ Institut. a oost ma% dorious bv its &t inambent, Wilhelm Ostwald. - The caliber of Bonhder's contributions may be judged from the fields that have an aged his attention: chemical roperties of atomic hydrogen. %afovered by R. W. Wood 8922-28); dudation of me-dissociation s~ectrs, discovered bv V. Henn 1928 ; discovery of the two modifications of hydmgen pm- Acted by uantum mechanics and the preparation of p ~ e hydm n q1929); optis detection and determinatuon solnbi& OF mercurs m water and organic solvents 11930): detcctioh and study if "moleculai' and "atomic" adsor iion of hydroken with the aid of para-hydrogen $1931-33): &mica1 behavlor of hcavv Lvdronen: detection an ntudv of the -ten- ... .. tion of deuterium b$ E&&P oruani&: d;ffer&iation of ex - changeable and noi-&changeabTe hydmgen in organic a m - unds; acceleration of -&on8 in hem water; ,studies <sing %uteriurn to unravel the mechanism of iydmgen-,on attalysis, tautomerktios condensation reactions (1934- 38). He and Harteck collaborated on the excellent monograph "G~rd- - - lagen der Photochemie" (1933). Professor Bonboeffep is a member of the Kaiser Wilheh Gesellschaft zur F61derunp der Wissendaften and of the Sichi& Akademie der W&enschaften. (Contributed by Ralph E. OLS~Y, University qf CimLvznti)
