My name is ...

Kurt Aitzetmüller.


For scientific contacts: Send e-mail to aitzetm@web.de.

Scientific work: See 187 publications with 112 different co-authors in 58 different journals.

For searches I recommend Google Scholar, which will find >120 of them.

(The American "PubMed" and Elsevier's "BiomedExperts" are woefully inadequate and will find only about 10-20 out of 187.)

A complete "List of Publications" can be obtained by writing to aitzetm@web.de.

Free access to database SOFA (Seed Oil Fatty Acids): Please note: The old SOFA had been damaged after my retirement, and no longer works. You should now go to the website of MRI and follow instructions there. However, a warning: Style, and search routines, are now different!


Curriculum Vitae:

Born: 03.11.1938; Austria.

1945 - 1957: Primary and High School (Gymnasium) in St. Pölten, Lower Austria

1957 - 1958: Military Service (Austria)

1958 - 1966: Chemistry at University of Vienna (Institute for Analytical Chemistry, and Atominstitut der Österreichischen Hochschulen)

June 1966: Ph.D. in Chemistry (Vienna)

1966 - 1968: Resident Research Associate at Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Argonne, IL (near Chicago, USA)

1969 - 1985: Research Scientist, Unilever Research Laboratory, Hamburg, Germany

1986 - 2003: Head, Institute for Chemistry and Physics [of Lipids], of the Federal Center for Lipid Research in Münster, Germany, as successor to Prof. Artur Seher. [After 1991: 'Federal Center for Cereal, Potato and Lipid Research' (BAGKF)]

1988 - 2003: Director and Professor.

01.01.1988 - 31.12.1990: Head of Federal Center for Lipid Research (Bundesanstalt für Fettforschung) in Münster; as successor to Prof. H.K. Mangold

1986 - 1997: Head (jointly with Dr. M. Arens) of "Fachgruppe Analysen und Einheitsmethoden" (Analytical Division) of German Society for Fat Research

1986 - 2000: Lecturer on "Special Problems of Lipid Analysis"; University of Münster, Germany

1988: Became a naturalized German citizen

30.11.2003: officially retired.

[Both the Institute and the Federal Centers, in their past form, no longer exist; resp. they had been reorganized now; see MRI.]

- Invited lectures in several European countries, USA and Malaysia; served repeatedly as congress session chairman

- Hilditch Memorial Lecture, England, 1987 (Liverpool, UK)

- Chevreul Medal and Lecture, France, 1996 (Angers, France).


Current main interests:

- Distribution and evolution of unusual fatty acid structures in seed oils.

- Tropical oils and Renewable Resources.

- Toxic fatty acids and cyanolipids.

- Lipids of medical and pharmaceutical interest.

- Analytical methods; GLC, MS, HPLC, NMR, Chromatography.

- Lipids and chemotaxonomy.

- Plate tectonics and angiosperm radiation.



1. Past research areas:

(each is reflected in a number of publications):

1.1. Radiochemistry; nuclear fission products, rare earths, transuranium elements; electrophoresis; neutron activation; autoradiography (ca. 1963-1968).

1.2. Carotenoids (algae); structure elucidation by MS, NMR, IR, derivatization; analytical and preparative TLC on MgO; Carotenoids in chemotaxonomy (ca. 1966-1971).

1.3. Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) of metals; general analytical chemistry (ca. 1969-1974).

1.4. Frying oils; fat oxidation and degradation; GPC and HPLC of frying fats (ca. 1971-1979).

1.5. General HPLC methods development (food constituents; additives and contaminants; polymer additives; pharmaceuticals; natural products and drugs; plant constituents; pesticides; dyes; emulsifiers, etc.) (ca. 1975-1984).

1.6. HPLC of sugars, carbohydrate oligomers, glycerol, di- and polyglycerols and other polyols, cyclodextrines (ca. 1977-1980).

1.7. Analysis methods for nitrosamines; trace levels (ca. 1981-1983).


2. More recent research topics:

2.1. HPLC of lipids, in analysis of e.g. triglycerides, dimeric triglycerides, partial glycerides, emulsifiers, estolides, acetoglycerides, cyanolipids, diol lipids, waxes, etc.

2.2. HPLC of minor components in fats: fat-soluble vitamins; chlorophyll degradation products, etc.

2.3. Gas chromatography of fatty acids and minor components; structure-retention relationships; resolution of unusual FA and positional isomers.

2.4. γ-Linolenic acid and other specialties of pharmaceutical and dietary interest. - Desaturation steps in FA biosynthesis.

2.5. GC-MS of fatty acid derivatives; structure elucidation. - 13C-NMR of triglycerides.

2.6. Interdisciplinary research (Chemistry / Botany) in plant constituents and natural products, especially lipids. - Evolution of seed oils.

2.7. Unusual FA in seed oils, Delta-5-FA. Acetylenic FA. Double-bond positional isomers. Allenic and cyclic FA.

2.8. Toxic fatty acids and cyanolipids.

2.9. Renewable Resources. - Technical oils. - New crops; tropical oils; minor oilseeds.

2.10. Lipids in botanical taxonomy and plant evolution. - Plate tectonics and angiosperm radiation; GLC "fingerprints" of seed oils as a tool in plant chemotaxonomy.

2.11. Fatty Acids and other lipids of medical and pharmaceutical interest.