Friedrich Karl Franz Liebau (May 31, 1926 – 11 March 2011) was a German chemist, crystallographer, and mineralogist known for his research in silicates.
He experienced the end of the war with gunshot wounds in the hospital and thus escaped a longer period of imprisonment in Siberia.
He worked the supervision of Erich Thilo and received his diploma in 1951 with the thesis "Über das Na2BeF4 und seine Beziehung zum Ca2SiO4", and followed by his doctorate in 1956 with the doctoral thesis "Über die Kristallstrukturen des (NaAsO3)x, der Hochtemperaturmodifikation des Maddrellschen Salzes (NaPO3)x(l), des β-Wollastonits CaSiO3 und einiger strukturell verwandter wasserhaltiger Calciumsilicate.”[2] In 1960, Liebau fled East Berlin to West Germany.
Until his death in Kiel, on 11 March 2011, aged 84, he worked on an extension of the bond valence theory, with which certain material properties, such as high-temperature superconductivity can be described.
[1] Liebau received many awards for his research, including the following,[1] Liebauite, a mineral discovered in the Eifel in 1992, is named after him.