Lavoslav Ruzicka

Born in Vukovar, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family of craftsmen and farmers was of Czech, German and Croatian origin. He was the first Nobel Prize winning Croatian chemist. He holds eight honorary doctorates (4 Science, 2 Medicine, 1 Natural Sciences, 1 Law), 7 prizes and medals, and 24 honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies.

Education

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

He left the Empire due to the excessive hardship of everyday political life and chose the High Technical School in Karlsruhe in Germany. He was a good student in subjects he thought would be necessary to his future, in organic chemistry. His physical chemistry professor, Fritz Haber (Nobel laureate in 1918), opposed his summa cum laude degree.

In the course of study Ružička set up excellent cooperation with Hermann Staudinger (Nobel laureate in 1953). Studying within Staudinger's department, he obtained his doctor's degree in 1910. With Staudinger, Ružička went to Zurich and was his assistant.

Work and research

Ružička's first works originated during that period, works 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 cinereriifolium), a highly esteemed insecticide. 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 reserch and set up a successful and productive cooperation with Cie Company (later Firmenich) in Geneva.

In 1916-1917, he was glad of 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) and the university in Zurich. Here, with a group of his doctoral students, he proved the structure and existence of the compounds of muscone and civet, the scents derived from the musk deer and the civet cat.

In 1921, the Geneva perfume manufacturers Chuit, Naef & Firmenich asked him to collaborate. He achieved financial independence, but not great, so he left Zurich to start working for the Ciba, Basle (Basel)-based company. In 1927, he took over the organic chemistry chair at the Utrecht university in Netherlands, where he remaind for three years, and then returned to Switzerland, which was superior in its chemical industry.

Back to Zurich and the 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 Butendandt. In 1940, following the award, he was invited by the Croatian Chemical Association, where he delivered a lecture to an overpacked hall of dignitaries. The topic of the lecture was From the Dalmatian insect powder to sex hormones.

In the course of World War II, he lost some excellent collaborators, so Ružička restructured his laboratory with new, younger, promising people; among them was Vladimir Prelog. With new people, new research areas opened.

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.

Following 1950, Ružička returned to chemistry, which had entered a new era of research. He turned to the field of biochemistry and the problems of evolution and genesis of life, particularly to the biogenesis of terpenes. He published a hypothesis titled Biogenetic isoprene rule, which was the peak of his scientific career. He retired in 1957, turning over the running of the laboratory to his assistant, the future Nobel laureate Vladimir Prelog.

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, but was demolished by Serb aggression in 1991 in the course of the Croatian War of Independence.

External links

• Lavoslav Ružička
• Ružička, Prelog, Andrić stamps - in English
• Nobel Prize Winners

Referenced By