Theophi Eicher, born in 1932 in Heidelberg, studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg from 1952 to 1957 and obtained his Ph.D. under Georg Wittig in 1960. After postdoctoral work at Columbia University, New York, in the laboratories of Ronald Breslow, and assistanships in Heidelberg and Würzburg, he habilitated 1967 at the University of Würzburg. In 1974, he was appointed as Associate Professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. In 1976 he was appointed as Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Dortmund. Since 1982, he worked as Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of the Saarland, Saarbücken, and was retired in 2000.

Prof.. Eicher’s research interests concern the synthetic chemistry of cyclopropenones and triafulvenes, as well as natural product synthesis (constituents of bryophytes). He is coauthor of several books. Jointly with L.F. Tietze, he was awarded the 1982 literature prize of the ‘Fond der Chemischen Industrie’. He is also Dr. h.c. and Prof. H.c. of the Facultad de Quimica de la Universidad de la Republica Montevideo, Uruguay.

Siegfried Hauptmann was born in 1931 in Dürrhennersdorf, in the district of Löbau in Saxony and studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig. In 1958, he obtained his Dr.rer.nat. under W. Treibs for research on dicarboxylic acids and habilitated in the field of organic chemistry in 1961. In that year, he was made assistant professor at the University of Leipzig, and full professor in 1969, and was retired in 1996. His research interests lie predominantly in the field of synthetic organic chemistry and reaction mechanisms.

Prof. Hauptmann is author or coauthor of several books (Struktur und Reaktion in der Chemie, Strathilfe Chemie, Strereochemie). He has been Visiting Professor in several countries and is Professor h.c. at the University Potosi, Bolivia.