Erich Clar

Erich Clar (August 23, 1902 – March 27, 1987) was an organic chemist who studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon chemistry. He is considered as the father of that field. He authored the two-volume "Polycyclic Hydrocarbons", which described the syntheses, properties, and UV-visible absorption spectra of hundreds of PAHs. He created the Sextet Theory to describe the behavior of PAH isomers. This was described in his book "The Aromatic Sextet". He was awarded the August Kekulé Medal by the Chemical Society of the GDR in 1965, the highest award given by that society to foreign scientists, and the first Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Research Award of the International Symposium on Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in 1987.