Leopold Horner was a German chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 and published in a modified Wittig reaction

Wittig reaction

The Wittig reaction is a chemical reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with a triphenyl phosphonium ylide to give an alkene and triphenylphosphine oxide....

 using phosphonate-stabilized carbanions now called the Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction

Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction

The Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction is the chemical reaction of stabilized phosphonate carbanions with aldehydes to produce predominantly E-alkenes....

  or HWE reaction or Horner-Wittig reaction

Life

Horner started studying chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and later with Heinrich Wieland at the University of Munich. After he received his Ph.D and his habilitation

Habilitation

Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...

 he worked at the Polymer Research Institute in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

. In 1953 he became professor at the University of Mainz.