Rolf Huisgen, Eminent Chemist and Polymath (1920–2020): In His Own Words and In His Publication Metrics

Abstract

As a compliment to several other publications that present and honor Rolf Huisgen's research achievements, the first part of this paper reveals the human side of this eminent chemist. From excerpts from many of his personal and professional writings, Huisgen's personality and philosophies of life are revealed. Also revealed is Huisgen functioning as a historian of chemistry. The second part of this paper examines the scientometrics of Huisgen's publication history. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Huisgen's career experienced a major transition in terms of publication metrics and the influence these papers had on the organic chemistry community. This was the result of his research into 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions. Citations to his scientific contributions are well spread over many of his papers, demonstrating his constant work and the building up of a research topic, which continued after his official retirement in 1988. In fact, 17 % of his more than 600 publications appeared after 1988. The majority of Huisgen's papers were co-authored with his many graduate and postdoctoral students. Consistent with the trend of that era, Huisgen was the sole author of most of his Review articles, and not just those of his many plenary lectures, and it is those Review articles that proved to be his most cited publications. This demonstrates the power and influence of Review articles-secondary sources, in the vocabulary of historians and sociologists of science. In those Review articles, Huisgen principally described the state of the art of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions-his golden offspring.

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