MSU Gallery of Chemists' Photo-Portraits and Mini-Biographies

* Otto Wallach

1847-1931

Wallach was a close associate of Kekulé at the University of Bonn, where he became responsible for pharmacy instruction. This aroused his interest in essential plant oils, which he later pursued as professor at Göttingen. His main research was on terpenes (such as limonene, pinene, etc.) and he formulated the "isoprene rule" for the build-up of terpene structures. His work had industrial as well as academic significance. He received the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.