Vagner (or Wagner in the German literature) was a true genius, and a true character.  As a youngster, he was sent to school in western Russia, only to run away and return to his home at age 16.  After qualifying to enter the university, he began studying law, only to start over again when he discovered chemistry.  As a student, he was an active participant in the local amateur theater, a love that continued into his adult years.  As a chemist, he developed a useful synthesis of alkylzinc reagents, turned potassium permanganate into a useful reagent for the site-specific oxidation of alkenes, first proposed the idea that rearrangements occurred during certain reactions of bicyclic monoterpenes, and proposed the first correct structures of many of the monocyclic and bicyclic monoterpenes.  His designation in the title is due to Meerwein.

Egor Egorovich Vagner (1849-1903): A "wondrously sharpwitted" chemist

244th National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.