Walter Kaminsky (7 May 1941 – 23 November 2024) was a German chemist who specialised in olefin polymerization and plastic recycling. He discovered the high activity of Group 4 metallocene/methylaluminoxane (MAO) mixtures (later named the Kaminsky catalyst) as catalysts for olefin polymerization in 1980.

Life and career

Kaminsky was born in Hamburg, Germany on 7 May 1941. He studied chemistry at the University of Hamburg. He received his PhD under Hansjörg Sinn in 1978 and obtained his habilitation in 1982, both at the University of Hamburg. He was a faculty member at the University of Hamburg since 1977, and later became a full professor for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry. He retired and became an emeritus professor in 2006. He was awarded, among other prizes, the Körber European Science Prize in 1988, the 1999 Benjamin Franklin Medal, and the Hermann Staudinger Prize 2002. In 2024, he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame. Kaminsky died on 23 November 2024, at the age of 83.