Ferdinand Bohlmann (27 August 1921 – 23 September 1991) was a German chemist, known for his studies of plant natural products chemistry, especially terpenoids and polyynes.
Life
Bohlmann studied chemistry in Göttingen from 1939 to 1944. His studies were interrupted by military service and injury. In 1946, he received his doctorate under Hans Brockmann (1903–1988) on chromatography of pyridine compounds.Winterfeldt, E. 1994. Ferdinand Bohlmann (1921–1991) und sein wissenschaftliches Werk. Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 1994:I–XXXIV. He then worked under Hans Herloff Inhoffen at the University of Marburg. Bohlmann followed Inhoffen to the TH Braunschweig and completed his habilitation there. Bohlmann became a lecturer in 1952 and an adjunct professor in 1957. In 1959, he succeeded Friedrich Weygand at the TU Berlin (1911–1969) at the Institute for Organic Chemistry, where he led a rapidly expanding working group. His most famous academic student is Helmut Schwarz.
Bohlmann died on 23 September 1991.Harborne, J. n.d. Ferdinand Bohlmann 1921–1991. Phytochemistry.
Work
Bohlmann's main area of work was natural product chemistry, especially terpenes and polyynes. These were mainly isolated from plants of the Asteraceae family, (formerly Compositae), and their structure was elucidated. Bohlmann also worked on the characterization of quinolizidine alkaloids. Bohlmann's list of publications includes around 1300 publications. His collaboration with the biodiversity informatics working group at the Berlin Botanical Garden resulted in a system with which the chemical substances of the Compositae were made accessible in a database, the "Bohlmann Files". The Bohlmann-Rahtz pyridine synthesis is named after Bohlmann and Dieter Rahtz.
Honors
In 1954, he received the lecturer prize of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. In 1958, he was awarded the Göttingen Academy Prize. The Bohlmann Lecture series was established in his honor in 1989 at the Institute for Chemistry at the TU Berlin. From 2004 to 2018 this event was funded by the Schering Foundation. Since 2019 the event has been carried out in cooperation with Bayer AG.
+ Bohlmann lecture Guest Year Title of talk Institution Country Albert Eschenmoser 1989 Why not hexose nucleic acids? ETH Zürich Switzerland Meinhart H. Zenk 1990 Why do plants have to be virtuoso chemists? LMU Munich Germany Elias James Corey 1991 New Developments in the Field of Steroids Harvard University United States Duilio Arigoni 1992 Synthesis and detection of chiral t-butyl groups ETH Zürich Switzerland Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou 1993 Chemistry and Biology of the Enediyne Anticancer Antibiotics UCSD United States Koji Nakanishi 1994 Lessons from Nature Columbia University United States Jean-Marie Lehn 1995 Supramolecular Chemistry : Concepts and Recipes Collège de France France Ekkehard Winterfeldt 1996 Natural product synthesis : experimental challenge, intellectual game, chemical treasure trove Leibniz Universität Hannover Germany Yoshito Kishi 1997 Stereochemistry Assignment by Organic Synthesis Harvard University United States Jack E. Baldwin 1998 How old is Penicillin University of Oxford United Kingdom Ryoji Noyori 1999 Asymmetric Catalysis: Science and Opportunities Nagoya University Japan Dieter Seebach 2000 A trip into the world of β-proteins ETH Zürich Switzerland George Whitesides 2001 Polyvalency in Biochemistry Harvard University United States Samuel J. Danishefsky 2002 On the Awesome Power of Chemical Synthesis Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center United States Peter B. Dervan 2003 Molecular Recognition of DNA by Small Molecules California Institute of Technology United States Manfred T. Reetz 2004 Directed Evolution of Enantioselective Enzymes Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung Germany Christopher T. Walsh 2005 Tailoring of Natural Products by Biosynthetic Halogenations Harvard Medical School United States Robert H. Grubbs 2006 Olefin Metathesis: from Fundamental Science to Applications California Institute of Technology United States Aaron Ciechanover 2007 The Ubiquitin System – From Bench to Bedside Technion Israel Richard R. Schrock 2008 Monoalkoxide Monopyrrolide Olefin Metathesis Catalysts of Molybdenum Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States Gerhard Ertl 2009 Elementary Steps in Heterogeneous Catalysis Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society Germany Ada E. Yonath 2010 The amazing ribosome, its tiny enemies and hints of its origin Weizmann Institute of Science Israel Ei-ichi Negishi 2011 Magical Power of Transition Metals: Past, Present, and FutureEi-ichi Negishi: Nobel Lecture: Magical Power of Transition Metals: Past, Present, and Future. auf nobelprize.org. Purdue University United States David MacMillan 2012 New Catalysis Concepts Princeton University United States David Milstein 2013 Discovery of Metal-Catalyzed Reactions for Sustainable Chemistry Weizmann Institute of Science Israel François Diederich 2014 New acetylene and cumulene chemistry: from optoelectronic and chiroptical molecular materials to supramolecular systems ETH Zürich Netherlands Phil Baran 2015 Studies in Natural Product Synthesis The Scripps Research Institute United States Frances Arnold 2016 Innovating with Evolution: Expanding the Enzyme Universe California Institute of Technology United States Alois Fürstner 2017 Catalysis for Synthesis – Concepts and Scrutiny Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung Germany Ben L. Feringa 2018 The Art of Building Small − from Molecular Switches to Motors Stratingh Institute for Chemistry Netherlands Hiroaki Suga 2019 Revolutionizing the discovery processes of de novo bioactive peptides and biologics University of Tokyo Japan
Bibliography Bohlmann, F., Burkhardt, T., & Zdero, C. (1973). Naturally Occurring Acetylenes. Academic Press. Seaman, F., Bohlmann, F., Zdero, C., & Mabry, T. J. (2012). Diterpenes of Flowering Plants: Compositae (Asteraceae). Springer Science & Business Media.
References
External links Biografie in der Festschrift 125 Jahre Technische Universität Berlin auf opus.kobv.de Auflistung der wissenschaftlichen Veröffentlichungen Ferdinand Bohlmanns auf bohlmann-ban.de (PDF-Datei; 196 kB)