Wittig, Georg, << VIHT ihk, gay AWRK >> (1897-1987), a German chemist, shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for chemistry with Herbert C. Brown of the United States (see Brown, Herbert Charles ). Wittig developed phosphorus-containing compounds capable of producing chemical bonds useful in the manufacture of drugs and in other industrial processes. One of his major achievements was the discovery of a type of reaction, now called the Wittig reaction, that produces olefins (a group of chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics and synthetic fibers). Similar reactions were later used to manufacture other substances, including vitamin A.
Georg Friedrich Karl Wittig was born in Berlin. He studied at the University of Marburg, Germany, gaining a doctorate there in 1926. He later held posts at the Technical University of Braunschweig and at the universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, and was a professor at the University of Heidelberg from 1956 to 1965.
