Leopold Ružička

Leopold Ružička
Born Lavoslav Stjepan Ružička
(1887-09-13)13 September 1887[1]
Vukovar, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia)
Died 26 September 1976(1976-09-26) (aged 89)
Mammern, Switzerland
Citizenship Austria-Hungary (1887–1917)
Switzerland (1917–1976)
Nationality Croatian, Swiss
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions ETH Zurich
Alma mater Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe
Doctoral advisor Hermann Staudinger
Doctoral students George Büchi
Known for Terpenes
Notable awards Marcel Benoist Prize (1938)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1939)
Faraday Lectureship Prize (1958)

Leopold Ružička ForMemRS (13 September 1887 – 26 September 1976)[2] was a Croatian scientist and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[3] who worked most of his life in Switzerland. He received eight honoris causa doctorates in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies.

Biography

Ružička was born in Vukovar, Croatia, then part of Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family of craftsmen and farmers was mostly of Croat origin, with a Czech great grandparent, Ružička, and a great grandmother and a great grandfather from Austria.[3]

Ružička attended the classics-program secondary school in Osijek. He changed his original idea of becoming a priest and switched to studying technical disciplines. Chemistry was his choice, probably because he hoped to get a position at the newly opened sugar refinery built in Osijek.

Due to the excessive hardship of everyday and political life, he left and chose the High Technical School in Karlsruhe in Germany. He was a good student in areas he liked and that he thought would be necessary and beneficial in future, which was organic chemistry. That is why his physical chemistry professor, Fritz Haber (Nobel laureate in 1918), opposed his summa cum laude degree. However, in the course of his studies, Ružička set up excellent cooperation with Hermann Staudinger (a Nobel laureate in 1953). Studying within Staudinger's department, he obtained his doctoral degree in 1910, then moving to Zurich as Staudinger's assistant.

Work and research

Ružička's first works originated during that period in the field of chemistry of natural compounds. He remained in this field of research all his life. He investigated the ingredients of the Dalmatian insect powder Pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium), a highly esteemed insecticide found in pyrethrins. In this way, he came into contact with the chemistry of terpene, a fragrant oil of vegetable origin, interesting to the perfume industry. He intended to start individual research and even started successful and productive cooperation with the Chuit & Naef Company (later known as Firmenich) in Geneva.

In 1916–1917, he received the support of the oldest perfume manufacturer in the world Haarman & Reimer, of Holzminden in Germany. With expertise in the terpene field, he became senior lecturer in 1918, and in 1923, honorary professor at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) as well the University in Zurich. Here, with a group of his doctoral students, he proved the structure of the compounds muscone and civetone, macrocyclic ketone scents derived from the musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) and the civet cat (Viverra civetta).[4] These were the first natural products shown to have rings with more than six atoms, and at the time that Ružička inferred that civetone as having a 17-member ring,[5] synthetic techniques were only know for rings of up to eight members.[6] Muscone had been isolated in 1904[7] but was not identified as 3-methylcyclopentadecanone[8] until Ružička suspected a macrocycle having characterised civetone. He also developed a method for synthesising macrocycles, now known as the Ruzicka large ring synthesis,[9] which he demonstrated by preparing civetone in 1927.[6][10]

In 1921, the Geneva perfume manufacturers Chuit & Naef asked him to collaborate. Working here, Ružička achieved financial independence, but not as big as he did plan so he left Zurich to start working for the Ciba, Basel- based company. In 1927, he took over the organic chemistry chair at Utrecht University in Netherlands. In Netherlands he remained for three years, and then returned to Switzerland, which was superior in its chemical industry.

Back to Zurich, at ETH he became professor of organic chemistry and started the most brilliant period of his professional career. He widened the area of his research, adding to it the chemistry of higher terpenes and steroids. After the successful synthesis of sex hormones (androsterone and testosterone), his laboratory became the world center of organic chemistry.

In 1939, he won the Nobel prize for chemistry with Adolf Butenandt.[3] In 1940, following the award, he was invited by the Croatian Chemical Association, where he delivered a lecture to an over packed hall of dignitaries. The topic of the lecture was From the Dalmatian Insect Powder to Sex Hormones. In 1940 he became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[1] During the World War II, some of his excellent collaborators were lost, but Ružička restructured his laboratory with new, younger and promising people; among them was young scientist and future Nobel Laureate Vladimir Prelog. With new people and ideas new research areas were opened.

Following 1950, Ružička returned to chemistry, which had entered a new era of research. Now he turned to the field of biochemistry, the problems of evolution and genesis of life, particularly to the biogenesis of terpenes. He published his hypothesis, Biogenetic Isoprene Rule, which was the peak of his scientific career.[11] Ružička retired in 1957, turning over the running of the laboratory to Prelog.

Ružička dedicated significant efforts to the problems of education. He insisted on a better organization of academic education and scientific work in the new Yugoslavia, and established the Swiss-Yugoslav Society. Ružička became an honorary academician at the then Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. In Switzerland, the Ružička Award was established, for young chemists working in Switzerland. In his native Vukovar, a museum was opened in his honour in 1977.

Personal life

Ružička married twice: to Anna Hausmann in 1912, and 1951 to Gertrud Acklin.[3] He died in Mammern, Switzerland, a village on Lake Constance.

References

  1. 1 2 "Leopold Stephan Ruzicka (1887 - 1976)". KNAW Past Members. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Prelog, Vladimir; Jeger, Oskar (1980). "Leopold Ruzicka (13 September 1887 – 26 September 1976)" (PDF). Biogr. Mem. Fellows R. Soc. 26: 411–501. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1980.0013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Grandin, Karl, ed. (1966). "Leopold Ružička". Nobel Lectures, Chemistry: 1922-1941. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company.
    Now available from "Leopold Ružička Biography". nobelprize.org. Nobel Foundation. 1939. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  4. ↑ Sell, Charles S. (1999). "Ingredients for the Modern Perfumery Industry". In Pybus, David H.; Sell, Charles S. The Chemistry of Fragrances (1st ed.). Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing. pp. 51–124. ISBN 9780854045280.
  5. ↑ Ružička, Leopold (1926). "Zur Kenntnis des Kohlenstoffringes I. Über die Konstitution des Zibetons". Helv. Chim. Acta (in German). 9 (1): 230–248. doi:10.1002/hlca.19260090129.
  6. 1 2 Agrawal, O. P. (2009). "Alicyclic Compounds (Sections 7.11 to 7.13)". Organic Chemistry – Reactions and Reagents (46th ed.). Krishna Prakashan Media. pp. 237–246. ISBN 9788187224655.
  7. ↑ Pybus, David H. (2006). "The History of Aroma Chemistry and Perfume". In Sell, Charles S. The Chemistry of Fragrances: From Perfumer to Consumer (2nd ed.). Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing. pp. 3–23. ISBN 9780854048243.
  8. ↑ Ružička, Leopold (1926). "Zur Kenntnis des Kohlenstoffringes VII. Über die Konstitution des Muscons". Helv. Chim. Acta (in German). 9 (1): 715–729. doi:10.1002/hlca.19260090197.
  9. ↑ Ružička, L.; Stoll, M.; Schinz, H. (1926). "Zur Kenntnis des Kohlenstoffringes II. Synthese der carbocyclischen Ketone vom Zehner- bis zum Achtzehnerring". Helv. Chim. Acta. 9 (1): 249–264. doi:10.1002/hlca.19260090130.
  10. ↑ Ružička, L.; Schinz, H.; Seidel, C. F. (1927). "Zur Kenntnis des Kohlenstoffringes IX. Über den Abbau von Zibeton, Zibetol und Zibetan". Helv. Chim. Acta (in German). 10 (1): 695–706. doi:10.1002/hlca.19270100188.
  11. ↑ Ružička, Leopold (1953). "The isoprene rule and the biogenesis of terpenic compounds". Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 9 (10): 357–367. doi:10.1007/BF02167631.
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