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the free encyclopedia
Vladimir Prelog (July
23,
1906 –
January 7,
1998) was a renowned
Croatian
chemist who worked in
Prague,
Zagreb and
Zurich and who won the
Nobel Prize in
chemistry in
1975.
Early years
Prelog was born in
Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, at
that time within the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. In
1915, as a child, Prelog moved
to
Zagreb. Educated in
Zagreb and
Osijek, he graduated from the
Czech Institute of Technology
in
Prague (Praha)
in
1929, receiving a degree as a
chemical
engineer. His teacher was Emil
Votoček, while his assistant
Rudolf Lukeš introduced him to the
world of
organic chemistry.
After gaining the
Sc.D. in chemistry, he started
to work in the private plant
laboratory of G.J. Dríza in
Prague, in charge of the
production of rare chemicals that
were not available on the market
at that time. His pastime was
spent in his own research, where
he started investigating
alkaloids from the
cacao bark.
Work in Zagreb
In
1935, he was invited to join
the Technical Faculty (Tehnički
Fakultet) of the
University of Zagreb, where he
took the post of lecturer in
organic chemistry. He also
taught students of
chemical engineering.
With the help of collaborators
and students, and financially
sponsored by the pharmaceutical
factory "Kašel"
(currently
Pliva), he started research of
quinine and its compounds.
Final works with the industry
yielded a financially successful
production of
Streptazol, one of the first
commercial
sulfonamides.
Scientific work here was
crowned with the first synthesis
of
adamantane, a
hydrocarbon with an unusual
alicyclic structure, being
isolated from
Moravian
oil fields.
The results of Prelog's work
have been published in the top
European chemical literature and
journals, while the
organic chemistry developed in
Zagreb at that time was well known
and identifiable around the world.
Work in Zurich
In
1941, he accepted the
invitation of
Lavoslav Ružička and left for
Zurich,
Switzerland, to the
Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH -
Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule). He was promoted,
starting as private senior
lecturer and ending up becoming
professor.
After Ružička's retirement in
1957, Prelog took over the
organic chemistry laboratory where
he expanded its activity to
unusual areas:
heterocyclic compounds,
alkaloids,
alicyclic compounds, and the
isolation and study of
biochemically active compounds
found in smaller quantities in
animal organisms. He also studied
the structure of
antibiotics and the
stereochemistry of
enzyme reactions.
His research has contributed to
the explanation of the structure
of
steroids,
triterpene, quinine,
strychnine,
solanine and other alkaloids
introducing so-called Prelog's
regulation, which defines the
conformational relations
between reactants and products.
Working with
Robert Cahn and
Christopher Ingold, he
formulated the so-called
CIP system, applied generally
in
stereometry.
Thanks to him and Ružička, both
Nobel prize winners from
Croatia, Zurich has become one
of the most significant centers of
modern
organic chemistry.
Nobel Prize winner
Prelog received the
1975
Nobel Prize for chemistry for
his works in the field of natural
compounds and stereochemistry,
sharing it with the
Australian/British
research chemist
John Cornforth.
His scientific opus encompasses
more than 400 works. Lecturer of
distinctive style and eloquence,
he trained many generations of
chemists. In
1986, he became an honorary
member of the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and
Arts.
Private life
As a private person, he was the
source of anecdotes about almost
all eminent chemists all over the
world. An intellectual with a wide
cultural background, he never
insisted on authority and was
unused to confrontation. As an
introspective person, ironic and
suspicious of high social,
political or religious
aspirations, Prelog rarely allowed
people insight into his inner
life. He was one of the 109 Nobel
Prize winners who signed the peace
appeal for Croatia in
1991.
Vladimir Prelog died in
Zurich, (Switzerland),
at the age of 92. An urn
containing Prelog's ashes was
ceremoniously interred at the
Mirogoj cemetery in
Zagreb on
September 27th,
2001.
