Editorial

Professor Egon Stahl 1924-1986

Exactly thir ty years after his first paper on thin-layer chro- matography (Pharmazie, 11,633 (1956)) the Nestor of this very important and widely-used analytical method died after a short illness. After he retired from the University of SaarbrLicken Professor Stahl returned to live in Eber- bach/Neckar, his place of birth, but only for a regrettably short time. With the passing on Egon Stahl the German scientific community in general, and pharmacy and drug research in particular, have lost one of their outstanding members.

Egon Stahl was born on 18th October 1924 and began his studies in pharmacy in Karlsruhe in 1947 after his release

as a prisoner of war. He completed his doctorate at Karls- ruhe under the botanist Weber and in 1957 he became a Lecturer in the Pharmacy Department of the University of Mainz. Stahl's scientific interests as a pharmacologist, however, really concerned essential oils, the morphology of glandular hair and the extraction of chemical species from plants and it is in this context that one can see how he became interested in TLC as a microanalytical method. Thin-layer chromatography and his name are nearly syn- onymous but his work on microthermal migration and supercritical fluid extraction of drugs are also of funda- mental importance.

High honours and distinctions were awarded to Egon Stahl by German scientific societies such as the CarI-Mannich Medaille of the Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft and also by many prominent scientific societies abroad. Two Ehrendoktoren and the Gro6es Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland are among the honours awarded him in recognition of his out- standing scientific work.

Professor Stahl will be remembered with affection by col- leagues and former students. We offer our condolence to his wife and his family.

Siegfried Ebel

Chromatographia Vol. 21, No. 10, October 1986 559