Heinemann Biography
Heinz Heinemann was a founding member of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia as well as of the New York Catalysis Club. He was Executive Secretary of the First International Congress on Catalysis in Philadelphia in 1956 and President of the International Congress on Catalysis from 1956-1960. In addition, he was elected a member of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research for his support in founding its Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry. Heinemann was Honorary Chair of the 2005 NAM held in Philadelphia and delivered a remarkable overview of the history of the catalysis societies at the banquet ceremony.
Born in Berlin, Germany in 1913, he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1937 from the University of Basel, Switzerland and came to the United States in 1938 were he became a U.S. citizen in 1944. He spent the next 40 years in the petroleum and chemical industry in research and executive positions resulting in his participation in 14 new industrial processes, including the process for converting methanol to gasoline and numerous publications and patents. He received several honors, such as the American Chemical Society Award in Industrial and Chemical Engineering, The Houdry Award of the North American Catalysis Society, the Murphree Award of the American Chemical Society and the Lowry Award of the U.S. Department of Energy. He was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
In 1978 upon his retirement from Mobil Research and Development Corp. where he had served as Manager of Catalysis Research, he joined the Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley were he was a retired Distinguished Scientist in the Laboratory’s Washington, DC Projects Office. While in Berkeley, he taught courses in Applied Catalysis in the University’s Chemical Engineering Department. His research involved coal gasification, catalytic coal liquefaction, hydrodenitrification, nitrogen oxide emission control and methane activation catalysts which resulted in over 50 publications.
He has held offices in many professional societies. He was founding editor of Catalysis Reviews, and worked as its editor for 20 years. He also was Consulting Editor for over 90 books in the Chemical Industries Series, published by Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Heinz Heinemann, 92, died November 23, 2005 of pneumonia at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. At this death, he was a distinguished scientist in the Washington office of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). During the period 2001 to 2004, he served as a manager of the Washington American Chemical Society and as president of its Retired Chemists Group.
This article was extracted from Heinemann’s biography in the 19th NAM Program Book and the News & Publications from the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
