Reiner Sustmann, Professor Emeritus, University of Essen, Germany, passed away last week on October 13, 2014.

Professor Sustmann’s research crossed the boundaries between organic chemistry, biochemistry, and medicine. He developed sensors for reactive oxygen species in biological systems, cheletropic traps for nitric oxide, and enzyme mimetics for catalases and peroxidases. He also studied mechanisms of cycloaddition reactions.

Reiner Sustmann was born on January 18, 1939, in Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany. He studied chemistry at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, Germany, and received his PhD in 1965 from the University of Munich under the supervision of Rolf Huisgen. After a year as a research associate at the University of Texas, Austin, USA, with M. J. S. Dewar and another year working with P. v. R. Schleyer at Princeton University, NJ, USA, he completed his habilitation at the University of Münster, Germany, in 1971. He was appointed professor for organic chemistry at the University of Essen, Germany, in 1978, where he stayed until his retirement.

In the years 1978–1979, he was visiting professor at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, in 1988 at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and in 1990 at the Université d’Aix-Marseille, France. Among other honors, he received a Karl Winnacker Fellowship, a Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and a honorary doctorate from the Université d’Aix-Marseille.

Selected Publications:

• Ascorbic Acid Reduction of Compound I of Mammalian Catalases Proceeds via Specific Binding to the NADPH Binding Pocket,
  Hans-Gert Korth, Ann-Cathérine Meier, Oliver Auferkamp, Willi Sicking, Herbert de Groot, Reiner Sustmann, Michael Kirsch,
  Biochemistry 2012, 51, 4693–4703.
  DOI: 10.1021/bi2017602
• 1-[(E)-2-Arylethenyl]-2,2-diphenylcyclopropanes: Kinetics and Mechanism of Rearrangement to Cyclopentenes,
  Johann Mulzer, Rolf Huisgen, Vladimir Arion, Reiner Sustmann,
  Helv. Chim. Acta 2011, 94, 1359–1388.
  DOI: 10.1002/hlca.201100135
• Mechanistic Aspects of Diels-Alder Reactions: A Critical Survey,
  Jürgen Sauer, Reiner Sustmann,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1980, 19, 779–807.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.198007791
• Orbital energy control of cycloaddition reactivity,
  R. Sustmann,
  Pure Appl. Chem. 1974, 40, 569–593.
  DOI: 10.1351/pac197440040569
• Substituent Effects in 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of Phenyl Azide,
  Reiner Sustmann, Heinrich Trill,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1972, 11, 838–840.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.197208382