Their method of synthesizing cyclic organic compounds proved valuable for the manufacture of synthetic rubber and plastic.

Diels was employed at the University of Kiel when he completed his Nobel Prize-winning work, and remained there until he retired in 1945.

Diels was born on 23 January 1876 in Hamburg, Germany, and moved with his family to Berlin when he was two years old.

[1] Immediately after graduating from the University of Berlin, he was offered a position with the Institute of Chemistry at the school.

It was during his time at Kiel, where he worked with Kurt Alder developing the Diels–Alder reaction, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1950.