Richard Kuhn was a pioneering biochemist born in Vienna on December 3, 1900, who established himself as a leading figure in organic chemistry and biochemistry during the twentieth century. After earning his doctorate from the University of Munich in 1922 under Richard Willstätter, he held professorships at ETH Zurich from 1926 to 1929 before becoming director of the Chemistry Department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. He served as Managing Director of the Institute from 1937 and later played a crucial role in transforming the Kaiser Wilhelm Society into the Max Planck Society following World War II. Kuhn also held a professorship in Biochemistry at the University of Heidelberg, bridging academic and institutional research leadership throughout his distinguished career.
Kuhn's groundbreaking research on carotenoids and vitamins fundamentally transformed nutritional biochemistry, earning him the 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his systematic isolation, purification, and structural analysis of numerous carotenoids including carotene, lycopene, flavoxanthin, and violaxanthin. His work demonstrated that symmetrical provitamin A yields two molecules of vitamin A, establishing critical connections between plant pigments and essential nutrients. Simultaneously with Paul Karrer, he determined the constitution of vitamin B2 and became the first to isolate a gram of this vital compound, while also conducting pioneering research on vitamin B6. Kuhn's investigations into the stereochemistry of polyenes and the relationship between molecular structure and color properties represented significant theoretical advances in organic chemistry that influenced generations of researchers.
With over 700 scientific papers and more than 150 students and collaborators, Kuhn's intellectual legacy extends far beyond his own discoveries to the researchers he trained and the institutions he shaped. Following World War II, he served as a charter member of the Max Planck Society's senate and later as vice-president under Otto Hahn and Adolf Butenandt, helping to rebuild German science on ethical foundations. Although his role during the Nazi era remains complex, including wartime research that led to the discovery of the nerve agent Soman in 1944, his postwar leadership was instrumental in restoring international scientific collaboration. Kuhn's meticulous approach to biochemical research established new methodological standards, including early applications of chromatography, and his work continues to inform modern understanding of vitamins, carotenoids, and their biological functions.
