This is the fascinating, first-hand story of the groundbreaking invention by Nobel prizewinner Karl Ziegler and the patent fights between his research team at the Max Planck Institute of Carbon Research in Germany and the "giants" of the petrochemicals industry, such as Du Pont and Esso. The author joined Ziegler's group throughout the entire period, providing an entertaining case study of an innovative chemical discovery, presenting interesting historical as well as scientific information. An impressive example of the fights between academia and industry concerning patent rights and the economic utilization of academic research innovations.
About the Author
Heinz Martin has been a close colleague of Prof. Ziegler at the Max-Planck-Institute of Carbon Research in Muhlheim/Ruhr (Germany) and played an important key role in the invention of Ziegler's Polyolefine catalysts in 1953/54. In 1970 he became Co-director of the Studien- und Verwertungs GmbH (founded in 1925), which became the Studiengesellschaft Kohle GmbH in 1955, a trustee of the MPI in Muhlheim, with H. Martin as director.
