Karl Ziegler Master Advocate for the Unity of Pure and Applied Research John J. Eisch State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13850 Although the importance of intellect and imagination to a scientist's success is undisputed, the role played hy the scientist's personality is often overlooked. Yet it is temperament that determines why one scientist prefers to uncover new knowledge, while another finds satisfaction in applying knowledge to societv's needs. From these different human inrlinatl;ms have emerged the fields of pure research and aul~liedrvsearrh. The r ) r a c t ~ t ~ o nof~ one r s iield ha\,e periodidilly argued the supe;iority of their approach, often to the derogation of the other field. With the growth of scientific research, perceptive scientists have come to recognize how constraining, and indeed how harmful, it is to make a strict distinction between pure and applied research. In the field of chemistry the Nohel laureate, Karl Ziegler, stands out as one of the most zealous advocates for the necessary indivisibility of all kinds of research. His scientific achievements, which range from the fundamental to the most practical, make a cogent case for this view and, further, illustrate the role of human personality in scientific progress ( I ) . Born just before the turn of the century, Ziegler played a most far-reaching role in modern organic chemistrv, fostering the renaissance of chemistry in pmru,ar Kuropeand winning the h h e i Prile in chemistw iointl\. with G I ~ I INII~IA ,, in IYKl (2). T o the world a t large,-ziegle; seemed to epitomize the master applied chemist: the discoverer of a totally new way to make polymers from petrochemicals, permitting access to
polyethylene, polyolefins, and synthetic rubbers whose applications are myriad in our modern world. Yet an examina~ i e ~ l e r ' s 5 ~ -career ~ e a r dw; not hear out this image ;Ion ,,I of a chen~istunderlaking to sol\.e uoly '.relevantw pnhlems in indultrial ihtmiitr\,. " Zieder'i . attitude t w a r d rhem~strv was persistently one that put faith in fundamental research and orofessed ereat humilitv toward nature's laree store of iecrdts. He waiequally convinced that nothing was a nobler challenee than scientific research and that new knowledge would aid our modern world. In other words, he saw no r e k distinction between first-rate basic research and trulv. inee.. nious applied research, knowing that new insights into natural phenomena will have their novel applications in our technoiogical society and that both endeavors demand imagination and intellect. This vision of fundamental and applied research as inseparable merits our close attention a t a time when the issue of "relevance" has become the touchstone for evaluating government-funded research. The emphasis on applied research in solving society's energy, heal& environmental and hehavioral problems is justified by the criterion of "immediate pay off." Basic research is often criticized in comparison, hecause it is seen as too isolated from immediate human needs. Ziegler's recognition of the unity of both kinds of research was not a preconceived notion with which he started his life in research, hut rather it was a conviction that experience awakened in him. Indeed, one might well ask what experience led an academic chemist working with rare and esoteric chemicals to have such an appreciation of applied research. How did an academic organic chemist come to make such a tremendous contribution to such seemingly distant fields as nolvmerization. metallurev. -" antiknock fuel additives. detergents (even without considering his contributions to organic svnthesis itself)? This array ofindustrial achievements becomes all the more remarkable when we note that this was the same Karl Ziegler who achieved early scientific acclaim for his pioneering findings on free radicals, halochromism (carhonium salts), organoalkali compounds (carhanions),carbocyclic ring synthesis and the stability of carbon-carbon bonds. In truth, such topics would constitute a good survey of theoretical organic chemistry, as it existed prior to 1950. It is instructive and inspiring to review the intellectual and experiential odyssey that led Ziegler to be preeminent in both fundamental and applied
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Ziegler: "What has gulded my research has been solely the wish to do Mmething that gave me joy, that is. aioy from finding, somehow or somewhere. Something really novel. . . . A t least at the outset, the only thing of valueaimed fais an accretion in knowledge. rather U?an new applications".]Reference138). P. 21. Karl
Ziegler's Background and Milieu Karl Ziegler (1898-1973) was born near Kassel, Germany, on November 26, 1898, and raised in Marburg, the son of a Lutheran pastor, whose own education a t the University of Marhure had eiven him an ahidine reverence both for scholarshlp and for :he benefits of knowikdge. The elder Ziegler had lost his first child to diuhtheria and therefore called the voune . " Karl's attention especi'ally to Emil von Behrings, the Marhurg orofessor whose vaccine had conauered this disease. The brecocious and gifted Ziegler receked a prize for academic from the hand of von achievement a t the Realmmnasium .." Behrings, the first recognition of many. From chemical experimentation in a home laboratory, Ziegler was so advanced in his studies that he began his chemical education early and received his doctoral degree for his work with Karl von Auwers Volume 60
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at Marhurg a t the astonishing age of 21. Only four years later, he had completed an independent research project and submitted the results for his Habilitation, a necessary step for scholars aspiring to a university teaching uosition. After a brief , began a fruitful stay a t the ~ n & e r s i t yof ~ r a n k f u r t6egler ten years a t the University of Heidelherg (1926-19361, where all df the basic themes of his life's research had their start. In his chemical education Ziegler received a rigorous traditional training in preparative and analytical methods. His professor a t Marhurg, Karl van Auwers, could trace his chemical lineaee hack throueh A. W. von Hufmann to Justus v m Liebig himself. This t r i d k names recalls the Golden Age of Oreanic Chemistrv in Germanv. 1825-1900. However. in this celebrated tradition there was Bcant recognition given to the equally famous discipline of experimental physical chemistry, represented by Wilhelm Ostwald and his students. It was this traditional, strict separation of disciplines on which Ziegler turned his back. In his experiments Ziegler was to place increasing emphasis on kinetics, equilihrium measurements, and spectroscopic and analytical determinations. In this deuarture, he was to become one of the first practicing. uhvsi. . &organic chemists. However, his dedicatibn to experimentation and to demonstrable fact were to make him impatient o i t heoreti( a1 ~ l ~ ; c u s ~ut~ rtacfiirn m. m w h i ~ n ~ ~t hat ms Iwr wnt.31'1 u,ith rrnlit,. HI, w i ~rt,alq~roach . every suth disiwwcm w ~ t hthe question: it t h ~ Iw t w , ahdl cxperlmrnt v i ~ n\ill unm~t;nkrin light *,ftnat? He viewed imr knt p.tw.urp r ~ . ~ d v nI
