Helmut Zahn

Helmut Zahn (* June 13, 1916 in Erlangen; † November 14, 2004 in Aachen) was a German chemist who is often credited as the first to synthesised Insulin in 1963. His results synthesizing insulin were achieved almost simultaneously with that of Panayotis Katsoyannis at the University of Pittsburgh. His work was not honoured by the Nobel prize because in 1958 Frederick Sanger was the first who discovered the chemical structure of Insulin.

Helmut Zahn studied chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and received PhD in 1940. He habilitated at the University of Heidelberg and became director of the Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut at the RWTH Aachen University in 1952.