Richard Kuhn

Richard Kuhn married Daisy Hartmann in 1928 and they had two sons and four daughters.

He died on 31st July 1967 at Heidelberg, West Germany, at the age of 66.

Richard Kuhn was born in Vienna on December 3, 1900. His father, Richard Clemens Kuhn, was an Engineer while his mother, Angelika Rodler, was an Elementary school teacher.

He did his schooling from the ‘Gymnasium’ (the Grammar school).

Richard Kuhn studied Chemistry at the Vienna University and received his PhD from the University of Munich under R. Willstatter in 1922.

In 1925, he worked at Munich University as a lecturer of Chemistry.

In 1926, he was invited by the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschulein Zurich, where he took the post of Professor of Analytical Chemistry and worked there till 1929.

In 1930, he became the Principal of the Institute of Chemistry at the newly founded Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut (KWI) for Medical Research in Heidelberg

In 1937, he also took over the administration of this institute in succession to L. Von Krehl.

Kuhn investigated theoretical problems of organic chemistry and extensive areas in biochemistry carotenoids, flavins, vitamins and enzymes.

He investigated the structure of compounds related to carotenoids, the fat-soluble yellow coloring agents which are widely distributed in nature.

He discovered 8 carotenoids, prepared them in pure form and determined their constitution. He discovered that among them, one was necessary for the fertilization of a certain algae.

With Paul Karrer, he worked on Vitamin B2 and was the first to isolate a gram of it. With his team, he also isolated Vitamin B6.