🌻The “God of #Fluorine,” Karl Otto Christe, passed away on April 19, 2026, in California. He was born in Ulm, Germany, and studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart @Uni_Stuttgart from 1957 onwards. He received his PhD in 1961 for work with Josef Goubeau and emigrated to California a year later. There he worked first for #Stauffer Chemical Co. and from 1967–1994 for Rockwell International, a company well known for producing rocket fuels. From 1994–2005, Christe was a Senior Staff Advisor at the Air Force Research Laboratory of Edwards Air Force Base @AFResearchLab, and in parallel he was a Professor at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute of the University of Southern California @UniversityofSo5. Christe was most famous for the first completely chemical synthesis of elemental fluorine. Furthermore, he synthesized iconic ions like NF₄⁺ and ClF₆⁺ as well as extremely reactive polynitrogen ions like the linear-angled N₅⁺ and the cyclic N₅⁻, and he was well known as an expert in #EnergeticMaterials. He received the “Apollo Achievement Award” for his contributions to the Apollo missions and a wide range of prizes from the ACS @AmerChemSociety, the #SFC, and the GDCh @GDCh_aktuell. Christe’s contributions to inorganic chemistry cannot be overestimated.