Dietmar Seyferth ‑ an emeritus professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – succumbed to Covid-19 on June 6, 2020.
He published widely on topics in organometallic chemistry and was the founding editor of the journal Organometallics.
Seyferth was born in 1929 in Chemnitz, Germany and received his college education at the University of Buffalo. His PhD thesis dealt with main group chemistry under the mentorship of Eugene G. Rochow at Harvard.
He spent his entire academic career at MIT, focusing initially on organophosphorus, organosilicon, and organomercury chemistry. He also contributed to organocobalt chemistry and organoiron chemistry, e.g. the popularization of Fe2S2(CO)6. He died on Saturday, June 6, 2020, due to complications from COVID-19.
He has been widely recognized, notably with the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.