ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
Robert Karl Grasselli, 87, died on Jan. 11 in Munich.
“Robert Karl Grasselli was a highly accomplished and innovative industrial chemist, renowned for his seminal contributions to the design, development, and commercial exploitation of novel solid catalysis. Inventor in 175 U.S. patents, he was instrumental in developing a fundamentally new method of producing the polymer precursor, acrylonitrile. The key innovation in this one-step process was the use microcrystalline bismuth molybdate; the process was so effective that, after its adoption worldwide, a 50-fold increase of acrylonitrile production was achieved. Grasselli won an ACS petroleum division award, the E. V. Murphree Award, and the Edward W. Morley Medal. He also earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Bologna and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He played a crucial role in the bringing the Gordon Research Conferences to Europe. He also founded the Robert Karl Grasselli Foundation, which sponsors the Irsee Conferences.”—Doug Buttrey, William Goddard III, and Raul Lobo, friends and colleagues
Most recent title: distinguished affiliated professor, Technical University of Munich
Education: B.S., chemistry, Harvard University, 1952; Ph.D., chemistry, Case Western Reserve University, 1959
Survivors: wife, Eva-Maria Hauck-Grasselli
To recognize your late loved one or colleague, submit obituary information at cenm.ag/obits.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on X