Dietmas Seyferth

MIT Chemistry lost another iconic figure when Emeritus Professor Dietmar Seyferth died from complications from Covid-19 on June 6, 2020 at the age of 91.
Professor Seyferth was a pioneer in the field of organometallic chemistry and the first editor of the seminal American Chemical Society journal, Organometallics. He was also a regional editor for The Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. He was the recipient of many awards in organometallic chemistry and a revered mentor for many in the field.
Dietmar was born in 1929 in Chemnitz, Germany and emigrated to Buffalo, New York in 1933. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo and his Ph.D at Harvard University in 1955 with Professor Eugene Rochow. He was a post-doctoral student at the Technische Hochschule, Munich and at Harvard University. He worked briefly at Dow Chemical in Michigan before joining MIT as an assistant professor in 1957. He became Emeritus Professor in 1999.