Professor Gottfried Huttner, University of Heidelberg, Germany, passed away on July 21, 2021.
Huttner’s work always focused on structures—experimentally determined crystal structures or calculated ones. The aesthetics of molecular architectures were as important to him as the synthesis and stabilization of novel materials. He worked on topics such as organometallic chemistry, structural chemistry, organometallic π systems, multiple bonds between heavy main group elements, cluster chemistry, modeling, electrochemistry, synthesis, complex and catalysis chemistry of tripodal ligands, molecular modeling, pattern recognition, and neural networks in conformational analysis.
After his retirement, Gottfried Huttner devoted himself to a whole range of other interests besides chemistry: e.g., he has studied fine arts, geology, and the Turkish language and culture.
Gottfried Huttner, born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, in 1937, first studied mathematics and physics, then switched to chemistry and received his Ph.D. in 1966 from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, under the supervision of Ernst Otto Fischer. In 1972, he was habilitated at the TU Munich. In 1977, he became a Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and in 1986, in Heidelberg. From 1997 to 1999, he was a member of the University Senate, and in 2005, he became Emeritus Professor.
He has been a visiting professor in Strasbourg, France, Helsinki, Finland, Bordeaux, France, and the University of Paris VI, France.
Among other honors, Gottfried Huttner has received the Alfred Stock Memorial Prize of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) in 1992. From 1997 to 2001, he was a member of the Executive Board of the GDCh.
Selected Publications
- Reductive Activation of tripod Metal Compounds: Identification of Intermediates and Preparative Application,
Jürgen Mautz, Katja Heinze, Hubert Wadepohl, Gottfried Huttner
Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2008.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.200700873 - A Planar Water Tetramer with Tetrahedrally Coordinated Water Embedded in a Hydrogen Bonding Network of [Tc4(CO)12-(μ3-OH)4·4H2O],
Maaz Zuhayra, Willm Uwe Kampen, Eberhard Henze, Zsolt Soti, Laslo Zsolnai, Gottfried Huttner, Franz Oberdorfer,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128(2), 424–425.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja057142j - 3.0.CO;2-%23″ target=”_blank”>https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0682(200104)2001:4<949::AID-EJIC949>3.0.CO;2-%23
- Transition Metal Coordinated Al(X)L2 and Ga(X)L2 Fragments,
Roland A. Fischer, Markus M. Schulte, Jurij Weiss, Laszlo Zsolnai, Albrecht Jacobi, Gottfried Huttner, Gernot Frenking, Christian Boehme, Sergei F. Vyboishchikov,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120(6), 1237–1248.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja9716463 - Catalysis of allylic substitutions by Pd complexes of oxazolines containing an additional P, S, or Se Center. X-ray crystal structures and solution structures of chiral π-allyl palladium complexes of phosphinoaryloxazolines,
Jürgen Sprinz, Matthias Kiefer, Günter Helmchen, Michael Reggelin, Gottfired Huttner, Olaf Walter, Laszlo Zsolnai,
Tetrahedron Letters 1994.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(00)76748-7 - ansa-Metallocene Derivatives : IV. Synthesis and molecular structures of chiral ansa-titanocene derivatives with bridged tetrahydroindenyl ligands,
Ferdinand R. W. P. Wild, Laszlo Zsolnai, Gottfried Huttner, Hans H. Brintzinger,
Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 1982.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-328X(00)89067-1 - trans-Halogeno[alkyl(aryl)carbyne]tetracarbonyl Complexes of Chromium, Molybdenum, and Tungsten —A New Class of Compounds Having a Transition Metal-Carbon Triple Bond,
Ernst Otto Fischer, Gerhard Kreis, Cornelius G. Kreiter, Jörn Müller, Gottfried Huttner, Hans Lorenz,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1973.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.197305641
