Heribert Offermanns (October 24, 1937 in Merkstein near Aachen) is a German chemist and former member of the board of the Degussa AG.
Life and work
Offermanns studied chemistry at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH Aachen). He worked on his doctoral thesis as assistant to Friedrich Asinger on the border between organic and technical chemistry. After receiving his doctorate he worked afterwards on industrial chemistry and pharmaceutical research at the Degussa AG and at Degussa Antwerpen NV and Degussa Inc., New York. In 1976 Offermanns was appointed as member of the management board of Degussa AG with the responsibility for research and development. Offermanns remained a member of the board until 2000. He managed the development and expansion of Degussa's research center in Hanau-Wolfgang.
Heribert Offermanns was the president of the German Chemical Society and a member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation (DFG). He was also a member of the board of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and the University of Regensburg. Offermanns was board member of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation and chairman of the board of trustees of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart. Since 1988 he was Honorary Professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Heribert Offermanns has published numerous scientific papers on sulfur chemistry and on the production and use of hydrogen peroxide, he holds also several patents.
Heribert Offermanns received an honorary doctorate in engineering at the RWTH Aachen
1988: Carl Duisberg Medal of the German Chemical Society
2001: Karl-Winnacker-price of the University of Marburg
2011: Merit 1 Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
H. Offermanns: Azalogie-Prinzip: hin und zurück, Nachrichten aus der Chemie 59, 2011, 1152−1153.
H. Offermanns: Der andere Ostwald, Nachrichten aus der Chemie 57, 2009, 1201−1202.
W. Keim, H. Offermanns: Friedrich Asinger (1907-1999): A mediator between basic and applied research, in: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2007, 46, 6010–6013.
H. Offermanns: A plea for basic research - Utility is just a second-order moment, in: Chemie in unserer Zeit 2002, 36, 306–309.
H. Offermanns: Wasserstoffperoxid - Verwendung in Umweltschutz und Synthese, in: Chemie in unserer Zeit 2000, 34, 150–159.
J. Martens, H. Offermanns, P. Scherberich: Synthese von racemischem Cystein, in: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1981, 20, 668–668.
W. M. Weigert, H. Offermanns, P. Scherberich: D-Penicillamin - Production and Properties, in: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1975, 14, 330–336.
H. Offermanns, F. Asinger: Synthesen mit Ketonen, Schwefel und Ammoniak bzw. Aminen und chemisches Verhalten der Reaktionsprodukte, Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln und Opladen, 1966.
Immer eine Idee besser, published by Degussa AG, Frankfurt am Main,1998, Pp. 304–338 Aufsätze von Heribert Offermanns „Erfolgreiche Verbindungen – Kooperationen mit Wissenschaftlern im In- und Ausland“ und „Dynamische Vorgänge – Invention und Innovation“, ISBN 3-00-002389-5.
F. Asinger, H. Offermanns, D. Neuray und P. Miiller: Synthese von Thiomorpholin und 2-monoalkylierten Thiomorpholinen via 5,6-Dihydro-l,4-thiazine, Monatshefte für Chemie 1970.
