Hermann Staudinger, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
Hermann Staudinger (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛʁman ˈʃtaʊ̯dɪŋɐ] (listen); 23 March 1881 – 8 September 1965) was a German organic chemist who demonstrated the existence of macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. For this work he received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
He is also known for his discovery of ketenes and of the Staudinger reaction. Staudinger, together with Leopold Ružička, also elucidated the molecular structures of pyrethrin I and II in the 1920s, enabling the development of pyrethroid insecticides in the 1960s and 1970s.