Johann Gottlieb

Biography Gottlieb was born in Brno as son to a pharmacist. He completed his Matura at the local Gymnasium and was supposed to take over his father’s business. He studied thus first pharmacy then chemistry under professor Adolf Martin Pleischl in Vienna. He later continued his studies also in Prague. His plans to pursue a scientific career led to disapproval and a lack of (financial) support by his father. He first reorganised the laboratory formerly used for physical and chemical purposes. This and his work on textbooks lead to a period of reduced scientific publication activity. and served as its rector again in 1874/75 when the Joanneum acquired its new status of a royal technical college. Johann Gottlieb was married and a father of six. Gottlieb thus followed and shared Justus von Liebig’s approaches in chemistry education which were introduced to universities and technical colleges in the Austrian Empire in the early 1840s.

Scientific contribution Johann Gottlieb was the first to describe Propionic acid. Some of his findings on fatty acids and their melting point were further expanded by Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz.

Based on his scientific exchange with Ludwig Karl Schmarda during Schmarda’s time in Graz, Johann Gottlieb published his work on Paramylon. Honorary Member of the German Pharmacists Association

Selected publications Untersuchung des Gänsefettes und der Oelsäure (1846) Ueber eine neue, mit Stärkmehl isomere Substanz (1850) Beiträge zur Kenntniss der isomeren Säuren (1851, 1853) Vollständiges Taschenbuch der Chemischen Technologie (1852) Lehrbuch der reinen und technischen Chemie (1853) Polizeilich-chemische Skizzen (1853) Lehrbuch der pharmazeutischen Chemie (1857) Lehrbuch der pharmazeutischen Chemie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der österreichischen, preußischen und sächsischen Pharmakopöen (1859)