Science & invention
Werner Emmanuel Bachmann
1901–1951 · organic chemist
Detroit-born chemist who achieved the first total synthesis of a steroid hormone and devised a wartime process for mass-producing the explosive RDX.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
aged 49- Also known as
- Werner Bachmann
- Detroit years
- 1901–1920s
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bachmann was born in Detroit in 1901 and began his studies in chemistry and chemical engineering at the city's own college, today Wayne State University, before moving on to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There he earned his doctorate under Moses Gomberg, the discoverer of organic free radicals, and he spent the rest of his academic career at Michigan. With Gomberg he gave his name to the Gomberg–Bachmann reaction for joining aromatic rings. His most celebrated achievement came in 1939, when he and Alfred L. Wilds completed the first total synthesis of a steroid hormone, equilenin, opening the field of steroid synthesis that later produced cortisone and hormonal drugs. During World War II he developed a new method for producing the powerful explosive RDX, which allowed the United States to make it in large quantities. He died in 1951, not yet fifty.
Highlights
- First total synthesis of a steroid hormone, equilenin, with Alfred L. Wilds (1939)
- Gomberg–Bachmann reaction for making biaryl compounds
- Developed a production method for the explosive RDX in World War II
- Studied in Detroit, then earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1920s
Wayne State University
He began studying chemistry and chemical engineering at the Detroit college that became Wayne State University.
Worked here · 1920s–1951
University of Michigan
He took his doctorate under Moses Gomberg here and taught at the university for the rest of his career.