Prelog (Prelog), Vladimir

genus. July 23, 1906
Swiss chemist Vladimir Prelog was born in the family of Mary (Setollo) and Milan Prelog Prelog, in the Serbian city of Sarajevo (now part of Yugoslavia), where in 1914. killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Sarajevo assassination precipitated the First World War, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the formation of Yugoslavia. During the war Prelog family moved to Zagreb, where Vladimir graduated from local high school. From 1924 to 1929. He studied chemistry at Prague Institute of Technology.
In 1928, Mr.. P. got a degree in chemical engineering, which was equivalent to a Bachelor of Science, and the next year - the degree of Doctor. Assign P. doctoral degree coincided with the beginning of the world economic crisis, so the future scientist was unable to find a vacant academic positions. During 6 years he worked as a staff chemist in a commercial laboratory GI. Dreze, producing rare chemicals.
In 1935. P. was appointed as a lecturer, and 5 years later, an associate professor at the University of Zagreb. 'I did not know that here I have to, performing duties of a full professor, live in the part-salaried assistant, but probably.
if I had it and I knew my decision would not change '- the scientist later recalled this period of his activity. Organizing a research laboratory, P. synthesized adamantane - a solid crystalline substance, resembling a diamond and previously detected in small amounts only in the Moravian oil.
Soon after, in 1941. Germany Army invaded in Zagreb, Richard Kuhn, invited P. to lecture in Germany. On the way to Germany P. visited Leopold Ruzicka in Zurich (Switzerland). With Ruzicka, who was then the head of the Department of Organic Chemistry, Federal Institute of Technology, and with financial support from the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical companies 'Gesellschaft fц?r Industrie Hamish' ( 'Ciba AG') P. remained in Zurich. During the Second World War, Switzerland remained neutral, and the scientist can continue to study chemistry of natural compounds in t.ch. alkaloids and antibiotics rifamycin and boromitsin.
In 1942, Mr.. P. appointed assistant professor (lecturer, who paid for his lectures directly to students), in 1947. became an Associate Professor and 5 years later - a full professor of organic chemistry. In 1957. he succeeded Ruzicka as director of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry.
Stereochemistry studying three-dimensional geometry of the atoms within a molecule. In XIX. Louis Pasteur, section 2 optical isomers of tartaric acid crystals. He noted that solutions of each isomer rotates the beam of polarized light either to the left or right. Pasteur concluded that tartaric acid is composed of two distinct varieties, with the same atomic components, but different internal geometric structure. The substance, a rotating light to the left, called levogyrate, right - dextrorotatory. P. suggested that these varieties are mirroring each other (ie. they enantiomorphic). In 1884, Mr.. U.H. Thomson coined the term 'chirality' (from the Greek 'cheir' - for the hands) to describe such structural and optical differences. Chiral molecules, typically contain carbon atoms bonded with 4 different groups, and are not symmetrical.
Isomers have the same molecular formula but different structure. For example, ethanol (SN3SN2ON) and dimethyl ether (SN3OSN3) have the same molecular formula (S2N6O), but because the atoms are connected together in a completely different way, these two isomers of different physical properties. Stereoisomers have the same basic configuration of the atoms have a different location in space. Stereoisomers that are not mirror images of each other, are called diastereoisomers. They contain more than one chiral (asymmetric) carbon atom.
Having studied the stereochemistry of quinine - a substance used as a cure for malaria - and its isomers, n. drew attention to the compounds containing the ring structure of medium size (from 8 to 11 atoms), and the mechanism vnutritsiklicheskih reactions (ie. When vnutritsiklicheskih reactions are exchanged atoms or molecular groups between adjacent plots, which can be divided into 4 or 5 carbon atoms. Stereochemical and conformational analysis of cyclic structures within a highly complex and required the use of X-ray crystallography - a method, . which the conclusion about the atomic structure is based on photographs of the diffraction pattern, . formed during the passage of X-rays through the crystal,
. By studying the stereochemistry of large cyclic polypeptides, P. and his colleague Hans Gerlach opened up entirely new kind of stereoisomers, which they called tsiklostereoizomeriey.
Considering the difficulties associated with the visual image and understanding of the stereochemical forms of organic compounds, P. with two British chemists R.S. Kahn and Christopher K. Ingoldom developed a system of classification and nomenclature of stereoisomers. System Cana - Ingolda - Prelog is based on three-dimensional models and by using a set of rules derived consistently from one another, precisely defines the stereochemical structure of molecules with one or more asymmetric centers. As a result of establishing the rules for description and information in the catalog stereochemical compounds P. interested in descriptions of other problems in stereochemistry, such as group theory, graph theory and chemical topography.
P. and his colleagues synthesized vespireny, . molecules of which possess a rare type of symmetry, . and studied the stereochemistry nonaktina (a fungal metabolite, . which changes the permeability of cell membranes in relation to potassium) and the enzyme fatty acid synthase - an enzyme complex, . containing all the individual enzymes, . necessary for the biosynthesis of fatty acids.,
. In 1975
. P. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 'for research in the field of the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions'. The scientist was awarded it jointly with John Y. Cornforth. In his opening speech on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Arne Fredga made by P. 'important contribution to the chemistry of enzymes', stressing that the work done has enabled scientists to 'draw' map 'of the active part of the enzyme molecule'. In his Nobel lecture P. said: 'Enantiometry involved in life processes, the same in humans, animals, plants and microorganisms - regardless of their place of occurrence and time of their existence on Earth ... The only possible explanation for this lies in the fact that the creation of living matter was an event unparalleled in its singularity, and it happened only once. "
P. resigned from his post as director of the laboratory of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1976, but remained on the board of directors of chemical-pharmaceutical company, Ciba AG ' Basel.
In 1933. P. married a native of Prague, Camila Vitek. In the couple had a son. In 1959, Mr.. P. received Swiss citizenship. In his free time scientist likes to swim and to ski.
P. is a member of the Royal Society of London, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Irish Royal Society and Academy of Sciences, USSR. He has received many awards. These include the Medal of August Wilhelm von Hoffmann Germanskogo Chemical Society and Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London. Academic honorary degree of Zagreb, Liverpool, Brussels, Paris, Manchester and Cambridge Universities.