1869-1953

German chemist who pioneered numerous industrial applications of chemical catalysis during a 33-year career at the German chemical firm BASF. Mittasch's work focused on catalytic activators (which accelerate reaction speeds), "poisons" (which decelerate reaction speeds), and catalytic mixtures (which simultaneously accelerate and decelerate different stages of a multi-step reaction process). After retiring in 1934 he wrote numerous works devoted to chemistry and philosophy, focusing upon Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Robert Julius Mayer.