Richard Kuhn

Richard Kuhn was born on December 3, 1900, in Vienna. After attending the Döblinger Gymnasium alongside future Nobelist Wolfgang Pauli, Kuhn studied chemistry at the University of Vienna and the University of Munich under Richard Willstätter, completing his doctorate at age twenty-two.

Appointed Director of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Kuhn conducted masterly chemical syntheses of organic pigments and vitamins. He isolated Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) from thousands of liters of milk and synthesized Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). Awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, he was forbidden from accepting it by Hitler's decree, receiving his medal and diploma in 1949 after the war.