| Moses Wolf Goldberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 30, 1905 Rūjiena, Latvia |
| Died | February 17, 1964 Montclair, New Jersey |
| Nationality | Estonian |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Doctoral advisor | Leopold Ružička |
| Known for | Biotin synthesis and development of other pharmaceuticals |
| Notable awards | Werner Medal and Werner Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society (1940)[1] |
Dr Moses Wolf Goldberg (June 30, 1905 – February 17, 1964) was an Estonian-Jewish chemist who, along with Leo Henryk Sternbach, developed a process for the synthesis of biotin (a B vitamin) in 1949.
Moses Wolf Goldberg was born in Rūjiena, Latvia in 1905 and moved to Võru, Estonia as a young child. Goldberg attended the German Oberreal-schule in Tartu and studied science and mathematics at the University of Tartu from 1923 to 1924.[2] He then enrolled at ETH Zurich, where he earned a Diploma in Chemical Engineering. He did his doctoral work under Nobel Prize winner Leopold Ružička and was a colleague of other notable chemists, including Tadeus Reichstein,[3] Leo Henryk Sternbach, and George Rosenkranz. In 1931, he submitted a doctoral thesis entitled Versuche zur Synthese Ephedrin-ähnlicher Körper (Assay for Synthesis of an Ephedrine-Like Body)[2] and earned the Habilitation degree in 1935 despite increasing xenophobia at the institution.[4] In 1940, Goldberg was awarded the Werner Medal and Werner Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society.[1]
Due to the increasingly unwelcoming climate for Jews in Europe, in 1942 Goldberg emigrated to the United States along with many other Jewish scientists fleeing the Nazis.[5] He took a position with Hoffmann-La Roche at the company's Nutley, New Jersey facility. With Leo Sternbach, Goldberg patented a process for synthesizing biotin in 1949.[6] He obtained numerous other patents while working for Hoffmann-La Roche, identifying and refining antibiotics and other drugs.
Goldberg died at the age of 58 in February, 1964.[7]
Moses Wolf Goldberg was the son of Meyer Itzik Goldberg and Kayla Hanna Gibberman. His parents were born in Bauska, Latvia, and they married in Riga in 1904. He had a younger brother, Leo (b. 1907),[8] who also studied at the University of Tartu,[9] and a sister Miriam (b. 1909).[10] His father Meyer Itzik Goldberg was deported to Siberia, and died or was killed in the SevUralLag camp in December 1941.[11] His mother Kayla Hanna Goldberg and sister-in-law Erna Furman Goldberg (Leo's wife) were deported to Nedostupny,[12] in the Tomsk region of Siberia, and probably perished there. His sister Miriam and her husband Leo Klionski fled with other Jewish refugees to Tashkent, Uzbekistan;[13][14] Leo Klionski survived the war and returned to Estonia, but it is unclear what happened to Miriam. Leo Goldberg was not deported in 1941, and his fate is unknown.[12]
Moses Wolf Goldberg married Regina Hauser in Switzerland around 1928, and they emigrated together in January 1942 along with Regina's mother Ida Hauser.[15] They had no children.
