Margot Becke-Goehring (1914 - )

The chemist, Margot Goehring, was born on June 10, 1914 in Allenstein, East Prussia (Poland since 1945). She completed high school in 1933 in Erfurt. She had developed an interest in chemistry and wished to follow that interest in university studies. Her father was strongly opposed in that he felt that a career in science was not appropriate for a woman. In defiance of her father she did, in fact,S pursue chemistry first at the University of Halle and later at the University of Munich, where she completed her doctoral work in 1944. She then completed a Habilitation (post-doctoral work to qualify for an appointment at a German university.)

Becke-Goehring achieved an appointment in inorganic chemistry at the University of Heidelberg in 1946. It was at that time that she met her husband, also a chemist, Friedrich Becke. Over time she specialized in the chemistry of sulfur-nitrogen compounds. She was promoted to full professor in 1959. In 1961 she was awarded the Alfred Stock Memorial Prize, an award for “outstanding independent scientific experimental investigation in the field of inorganic chemistry” given by the Gesellschaft deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society).

In 1966 she became the Rector (president) of the University as the first woman to hold such a position at a West German university. In 1969 she became the director of the Gmelin Institute for inorganic chemistry at the Max Planck Society in Frankfurt. She retired in 1979. She has published ca. 300 articles and 6 books.