Alder, Kurt

Alder, Kurt (äl'dur) [key], 1902–58, German chemist, educated at Berlin and at Kiel. He was on the research staff of the Bayer Dye Works (1936–40) before becoming (1940) professor of chemistry and director of the chemical institute of the Univ. of Cologne. He shared with Otto Diels the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a process for the synthesis of complex organic compounds. The Diels-Alder reaction in its simplest form is the reaction of an alkene with a diene to form a cyclohexene.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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