20th Century

Born: Berlin (Germany), 1897 
Died: Heidelberg (Germany), 1987

Wittig studied in Tübingen and Marburg. In 1932 he became professor in Braunschweig, in 1937 in Freiburg, in 1944 in Tübingen, in 1956 in Heidelberg. He did research on the stability and the reactions of organic radicals and on the course of those reactions in unsaturated systems. Starting from lithiumphenyl he synthesised ylides. In connection with those investigations he introduced compounds of boron and phosphorous into organic synthesis. In 1979 together with Herbert C. Brown he was awarded the Nobel Prize.