Wittig, Georg

▪ German chemist

born June 16, 1897, Berlin, Ger.

died Aug. 26, 1987, Heidelberg, W.Ger.

      German chemist whose studies of organic phosphorus compounds won him a share (with Herbert C. Brown (Brown, Herbert Charles)) of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979.

      Wittig graduated from the University of Marburg in 1923, received his doctorate there in 1926, and remained as a lecturer in chemistry until 1932. He taught at the Technical University in Braunschweig and at the universities of Braunschweig, Freiburg, and Tübingen before joining the faculty of the University of Heidelberg in 1956, where he became emeritus in 1965 but continued to pursue research.

      In investigating reactions involving carbanions, negatively charged organic species, Wittig discovered a class of organic phosphorus compounds called ylides that mediate a particular type of reaction that became known as the Wittig reaction. This reaction proved of great value in the synthesis of complex organic compounds such as vitamins A and D₂, prostaglandins, and steroids.

* * *