Otto Rohm was a German chemist, co-founder of the chemical and plastics giant Rohm & Haas, and discoverer of a synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate which was launched in 1933 as Plexiglas.

Röhm studied pharmacy at the universities of Munich and Tübingen, and finished studies at Tübingen in 1901 with a dissertation in chemistry on "Polymerization products of the acrylic acid".

After university Röhm focused on the processing of leather. The Rohm & Haas Company was founded in 1907 in Esslingen, Germany and moved to Darmstadt in 1909 to produce Oropon, patented by Otto Röhm in 1907 to allow the hygienic treatment of animal skins for leather.

In 1919 the company became the first in the United States to manufacture sodium hydrosulfite, an essential chemical for textile dying, which it marketed as Lykopon. After the war and through the 1920s Röhm's ownership in the company, because of his German citizenship, was in question. In time the company developed as two interrelated companies separated by an ocean, with Röhm still leading the chemical innovations for both.

The company remained strong in leather and textiles through the 1930's when Röhm, still working in Germany, discovered a synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate which was launched in 1933 as Plexiglas. Röhm had studied the polymerization of acrylics since 1901 and in 1915 had patented a polyacrylic ester as a paint binder, allowing the expansion of the company's chemical products. Commercial production of acrylate polymers developed from 1927 through 1931 with Rohm and Haas's Acryloid and Plexigum products and the intermediate layer in Luglas, a safety glass. It wasn't until Plexiglas, however, that acrylics became a major focus of the company.

After the World War II the United States government seized Otto Röhm's share of the company, and in 1949 shares in the company were publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

See:

Chemicals for Industry (Philadelphia: Rohm & Haas Company, 1959)

"Otto Rohm," Wikipedia (accessed May 2, 2012)

Rohm and Haas corporate history, online at http://www.rohmhaas.com/history/ourstory