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Paul Müller Facts & Worksheets

Paul Müller was a chemist from Switzerland who received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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Paul Müller was a chemist from Switzerland who received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine because he discovered insecticidal qualities and the use of DDT in controlling vector diseases such as yellow fever and malaria in 1939.

See the fact file below for more information on the Paul Müller or alternatively, you can download our 27-page Paul Müller worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BIOGRAPHY

  • Paul Hermann Müller was born in Olten, Solothurn, Switzerland, on January 12, 1899. Müller spent his early years in Lenzburg, Aargau. However, when he was nearly five years old, his father, who was an employee of the Swiss Federal Railroads, was appointed and transferred to Basel.
  • Müller received his elementary education in Basel. In 1916, his interest in chemistry began when he was employed as a laboratory assistant in the chemical factory of Dreyfus and Company.
  • In the following year, Müller became a chemical assistant in the research laboratories of Lonza A.G., where he was able to work for a year. This experience helped Müller realize that he would be dedicated to learning chemistry. With this, Müller decided to enter the University of Basel in 1919 to work with F. Fichter and Hans Rupe.
  • In April 1925, Müller received his doctorate with a thesis about m-xylidine, its chemical and electrochemical oxidation, and its derivatives. Müller’s minor subjects were botany and physical chemistry.
  • Müller became a research assistant in May 1925 in the dye factory of J.R Geigy A.G., where he remained for the rest of his active career, until he became the deputy head of pest control research.

MÜLLER’S STUDY ABOUT INSECTICIDES

  • Müller’s interest in botany led him to study plant pigments and natural tanning agents. He utilized biological studies because of his work on the preservation and disinfection of animal skins. Later he became interested in studying pesticides.
  • Müller discovered a mercury-free seed dressing which became a significant product for Swiss farmers. In 1935, he started to study contact insecticides and formulated a set of criteria in guiding him in his research for an ideal agent.
  • The criteria included great toxicity for insects, no or slight toxicity for plants and warm-blooded animals, rapid toxic action, no odor, long-lasting actions, and low price. However, he did not consider stability and decomposability.
  • Müller first studied the action of various great types of compounds on a variety of insects. Müller believed that besides the practical value of his work, it was of philosophical interest in bringing together biologists and chemists.
  • Later on, Müller concluded that it would be possible to discover safe insecticides since insects’ absorption of toxic substances was entirely a different physiological aspect from their absorption by warm-blooded animals.
  • Müller’s attention was caught by the group of chlorinated derivatives of phenyl-ethane. In September 1939, he observed that in its work on flies, 4,4’-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane satisfied most of his criteria.
  • Later on, Müller found out that it was equally effective against other types of insects. In 1873, the compound had first been prepared by Othmar Zeidler, who had published a short description about the substance in Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. However, it did not include an indication that it had a physiological action.

THE DDT SUBSTANCE

  • In March 1940, Müller called the substance DDT or Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, and the basic Swiss patent was secured. He described his work on DDT and other insecticides in papers published in the Helvetica Chimica Acta in 1944 and 1946.
  • In the second of these papers, Müller stated the investigation of a large number of compounds related to DDT. None of these proved as effective as the original. Müller was unable to find any significant relation between structure and insecticidal action.
  • He noted that “a chemical compound is an individual whose characteristic action can be understood from its totality, and the molecule in this case means more than the sum of its atoms.”
  • At the start of 1942, the first commercial preparation of DDT appeared on the market. Its value was immediately recognized by several people. Müller also stated that despite several attempts by the combatants in World War II in obtaining a better insecticide, none of these had improved on his DDT.
  • Given that most of the war was fought in tropical areas, the significance of DDT in destroying disease-bearing insects was very obvious. The early work indicated that the substance was completely safe for humans.
  • After the war, DDT was widely used in the Mediterranean region in eradicating malaria-bearing mosquitoes, and the incidence of this disease was greatly reduced.

HONORS RECEIVED

  • After proving the significance of DDT in society, several honors quickly came to Müller. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948. In 1963, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Thessaloniki because of the significance of DDT in the Mediterranean region.
  • By 1961, Müller decided to retire from the Geigy Company and established a private laboratory in Oberwil, where he continued his further investigations until his death.

Paul Müller Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Paul Müller across 27 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Paul Müller worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Paul Müller who was a chemist from Switzerland who received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine because he discovered insecticidal qualities and the use of DDT in controlling vector diseases such as yellow fever and malaria in 1939.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Paul Müller Facts
  • Müller’s Profile Writing
  • The Timeline of Müller
  • Filling the Compounds
  • The Questions of Müller
  • Find the Substance
  • The Criteria
  • How did they Present It?
  • DDT during World War II
  • Fact or Bluff
  • The SIgnificance of DDT

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