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François N. Diederich: Pioneer of carbon allotropes and molecular recognition

François Nico Diederich, an iconic organic chemist who innovated and created in the fields of molecular recognition and host–guest chemistry, new allotropes of carbon and novel carbon-rich molecules, and drug activity and design, passed away on September 23, 2020 in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 68, after battling an aggressive cancer. A proud native of Luxembourg, Diederich became known the world over both for his chemical discoveries and for his warm, lively, and interactive personality. Educated first in Luxembourg and then earning his diploma and doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, Germany with Heinz Staab, Diederich gained early fame for the first synthesis in 1978 of a hydrocarbon that Staab had named “Kekulene” to honor the discoverer of the structure of benzene. Kekulene, containing 12 fused benzene rings in a planar circular structure, was resynthesized and studied by single-molecule imaging in 2019, and found to have the structural details predicted by Diederich and Staab. By conquering the synthesis of this molecule, Diederich became enamored of carbon-rich molecules that he studied throughout his career. Diederich was a postdoctoral fellow with Orville L. Chapman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1979 to 1981, and had fruitful interactions with Donald Cram, UCLA professor, who was on his way to the Nobel Prize in 1987 for host–guest chemistry. This field was another one in which Diederich became a world leader. Both of us (K.N.H. and J.F.S.) had similarly memorable educational interactions with Cram (and with Diederich!) at various times in our careers. As reflected in his garb in the photo taken in the Chemistry Library at UCLA in 1980, Diederich was a very active and successful football (soccer) player at the time! This sport and daily reading of novels occasionally took his mind off chemistry, but not for long. Diederich returned to Germany and earned his habilitation at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. Diederich later said of that experience that the “broad interdisciplinary learning and research environment . . . from organic chemistry to physics, to biophysics, molecular biology and physiology” are reflected in his diverse lifelong research interests. Diederich returned to UCLA as an associate professor in 1985, rising to full Professor of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry at UCLA in 1989. François and I (K.N.H.) joined UCLA at the same time (I was about 10 years his senior). Being his colleague and friend was a life-expanding experience for me, professionally and personally. We published six papers together at François N. Diederich. Reproduced with permission from ref. 1.