Hermann Staudinger. From H. Staudinger, H. Mark, and K. H. Meyer: Thesen zur Grösse u. Struktur d. Makromoleküle: Ursachen u. Hintergründe e. adadem, by Claus Priesner. Courtesy Wiley-VCH Publishers. Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965) Born in Worms, Germany, in 1881 and receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Halle in 1903, Hermann Staudinger had mainly been interested in ketene chemistry, only beginning his investigations of natural rubber in 1910. This new line of research led him to propose that polymers were made of macromolecules in 1917. The idea was controversial for reasons both scientific and political. World War I was raging and, living in neutral Switzerland at the time, he was a vocal critic of German use of chemical weapons on the battlefield. This made him very unpopular in his native country. Meanwhile, some scientists felt that there was an upper limit to the number of atoms that could be joined together in a single molecule. With dogged persistence he championed his theory, and in the 1930s the work of scientists like Herman Mark and Wallace Carothers would confirm Staudinger’s theory. Further validation came in 1953 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in recognition of his pioneering work. Staudinger died in 1965.