Heribert Offermanns


Heribert Offermanns is a German chemist and former member of the board of the Degussa AG.

Life and work

Offermanns studied chemistry at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen. He worked on his doctoral thesis as assistant to Friedrich Asinger on the border between organic and technical chemistry. After receiving his doctorate he worked afterwards on industrial chemistry and pharmaceutical research at the Degussa AG and at Degussa Antwerpen NV and Degussa Inc., New York. In 1976 Offermanns was appointed as member of the management board of Degussa AG with the responsibility for research and development.
Offermanns remained a member of the board until 2000. He managed the development and expansion of Degussa's research center in Hanau-Wolfgang.

Honours

Heribert Offermanns was the president of the German Chemical Society and a member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation. He was also a member of the board of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and the University of Regensburg.
Offermanns was board member of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation and chairman of the board of trustees of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart. Since 1988 he was Honorary Professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.
Heribert Offermanns has published numerous scientific papers on sulfur chemistry and on the production and use of hydrogen peroxide, he holds also several patents.

Awards