Goldschmidt, Guido

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GOLDSCHMIDT, GUIDO

GOLDSCHMIDT, GUIDO (1850–1915), Austrian organic chemist. Goldschmidt was born in Trieste. From 1874 to 1891 he worked at the University of Vienna, becoming professor there in 1890. In 1891 he became professor of chemistry at the German University of Prague. In 1907 he was elected rector of the university, but declined to accept the position, partly because he thought that it might precipitate antisemitic manifestations. He returned to the University of Vienna in 1911. He was one of the earliest organic chemists to elucidate the structure of an alkaloid, in his case papaverine; later he worked on other alkaloids, on polynuclear hydrocarbons (fluoranthene and others), on aldehyde condensations, etc.

bibliography:

Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 49 (1916), 893–932; Chemiker-Zeitung, 39 (1915), 649; Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science, 77 (1950).

[Samuel Aaron Miller]

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