Georg Michael Hanack, Emeritus at the University of Tübingen, Germany, passed away on November 6, 2019.

Georg Michael Hanack is best known for vinyl cations and phthalocyanines. His research interests included organic fluorine compounds, perfluorinated pyrethroids, stereochemistry, conformational analysis, organic reaction mechanisms, chemistry of vinyl and phenyl cations, synthesis of macroheterocyclic transition metal complexes (such as phthalocyanines) as intrinsic organic conductors (“shish-kebab“ polymers), and compounds with magnetic and non-linear optical properties.

Georg Michael Hanack, born in Luckenwalde on October 22, 1931, studied chemistry, philosophy, and economics at the universities of Freiburg, Bonn, and Tübingen, all Germany. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 under the supervision of Professor Walter Hückel. He then conducted research on topics such as organofluorine chemistry, organic chemistry, and stereochemistry. After his habilitation in 1961, he was granted the title privatdozent. He was promoted to professor extraordinarius at the University of Tübingen in 1968 and full professor of organic chemistry and head of the organic chemistry department at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany, in 1970. In 1975, he returned to the University of Tübingen as a full professor of organic chemistry.

Among other honors, Georg Michael Hanack received the Lifetime Honorary Membership of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1966, became an Invited Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 1988, and received the Arthur G. Dandridge Award 2000 and the Elhuyar-Goldschmid Award 2002.

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Selected Publications

• Antonio Martínez, Lakshminarayanapuram Subramanian, Michael Hanack, Spencer Williams, Sophie Régnier, Trifluoromethanesulfonic Anhydride, Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis 2016. https://doi.org/10.1002/047084289X.rt247.pub3
• Karl‐Heinz Schweikart, Michael Hanack, Larry Lüer, Dieter Oelkrug, 3.0.CO;2-N” target=”_blank”>https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0690(200101)2001:2<293::AID-EJOC293>3.0.CO;2-N
• Christine Rager, Gabriele Schmid, Michael Hanack, Influence of Substituents, 3.0.CO;2-0″ target=”_blank”>https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1521-3765(19990104)5:1<280::AID-CHEM280>3.0.CO;2-0
• Michael Hanack, Andreas Hirsch, Helmut Lehmann, Soluble, Oligomeric Bridged Phthalocyaninatoiron(II) Complexes, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1990. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.199014671
• Michael Hanack, Mechanistic and Preparative Aspects of Vinyl Cation Chemistry, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1978. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.197803331
• Michael Hanack, Heinz Eggensperger, Reaktionen mit cyclopropylmagnesiumbromid, Tetrahedron Lett. 1963, 4(28), 1975-1976. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(01)90952-9
• W. Hückel, M. Hanack, Methanolyse des Cyclohexyltoluolsulfonates, Chem. Ber. 1956, 89, 1989.