Klaus Roth, author of popular chemistry articles and books and Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), Germany, celebrates his 80th birthday on January 30, 2025.
As one of our longest-running contributors, Klaus Roth has authored a highly popular series of articles on the chemistry of everyday life. These and similar articles have been published in German in the journal Chemie in unserer Zeit, as well as in several books. He has also given numerous talks related to the topics of his articles, which have been very well received. In recognition of his outstanding literary achievements, the German Chemical Society (GDCh) awarded Klaus Roth the GDCh Prize for Journalism and Literature in 2008.
Klaus Roth told ChemistryViews: “The driving force behind my writing is, above all, the curiosity and sense of wonder about the world, which have remained unchanged since my childhood.” He further adds that his professional motto is: “Why, What For, How Come?”. And in my opinion, you can feel this curiosity and joy about chemistry in his articles. Filled with good humor and lots of fascinating facts, they are fun to read—for those who want to experience this for themselves, here is a list of English articles by Klaus Roth.
Klaus Roth was born in 1945 in Berlin. He studied chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) and received his Ph.D. there in 1973 under the supervision of Dieter Rewicki. After research stays at the Institute for Medical Research in London, UK, and the University of California, San Francisco, USA, he returned to Berlin in 1989 as Professor at FUB.
From 1991 to 1999, he was Director of the Dahlem Conferences, an initiative of FUB to promote interdisciplinary cooperation.
Klaus Roth’s research interests were nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and imaging techniques. As an author, he introduces a wide audience to everyday aspects of chemistry.
Selected Popular Chemistry Publications
ChemistryViews
- List of all articles by Klaus Roth published in ChemistryViews
Books
- Chemische Leckerbissen (in German),
Klaus Roth,
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2014.
ISBN: 978-3-527-33739-2 - Chemische Köstlichkeiten (in German),
Klaus Roth,
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2010.
ISBN: 978-3-527-32752-2 - Chemische Delikatessen (in German),
Klaus Roth,
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2007.
ISBN: 978-3-527-31984-8
Selected Research Publications
- Pr[MOE-DO3A], a Praseodymium Complex of a Tetraazacyclododecane: An In Vivo NMR Thermometer,
K. Roth, G. Bartholomae, H. Bauer, T. Frenzel, S. Kossler, J. Platzek, H.-J. Weinmann,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1996, 35, 655–657.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.199606551 - Noninvasive temperature measurement in Vivo using a temperature-sensitive lanthanide complex and 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy,
Thomas Frenzel, Klaus Roth, Susanne Koßler, Bernd Radüchel, Hans Bauer, Johannes Platzek, Hanns-Joachim Weinmann,
Magn. Reson. Med. 1996, 35, 364–369.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.1910350314 - Struktur und Dynamik von Lanthanoid-Tetraazacyclododecantetraacetat-(DOTA-)Komplexen in Lösung,
Simone Hoeft, Klaus Roth,
Chem. Ber. 1993, 126, 869–873.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cber.19931260404 - Determination of cytosolic ADP and AMP concentrations and the free energy of ATP hydrolysis in human muscle and brain tissues with 31P NMR spectroscopy,
K. Roth, M. W. Weiner,
Magn. Reson. Med. 1991, 22, 505–511.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.1910220258 - NMR-Tomography and -Spectroscopy in Medicine,
Klaus Roth,
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1984.
ISBN: 978-3-642-69741-8 - ESR, NMR, and ENDOR studies of partially deuterated phenyl substituted anthracenes. π–σ Delocalization,
R. Biehl, K. Hinrichs, H. Kurreck, W. Lubitz, U. Mennenga, K. Roth,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1977, 99, 4278–4286.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00455a012
Also of Interest
- Homepage of Klaus Roth
- Video: Interview with ChemistryViews Author Klaus Roth,
ChemistryViews 2011. - Interview mit Klaus Roth: “Beim Schreiben stelle ich mir einen Lehrer vor” (in German),
Frauke Zbikowski,
Nachr. Chem. 2019, 67, 8–10.
https://doi.org/10.1002/nadc.20194083842
