Deceased Academicians

Albert Eschenmoser

Prof.

Albert Eschenmoser

Date of birth 05 August 1925

Place Erstfeld, Switzerland (Europe)

Nomination 09 June 1986

Field Organic Chemistry

Title Emeritus Professor

Place and date of death † 14 July 2023

  • Biography
  • Publications

Most important awards, prizes and academies 
Awards: Benoist Prize, Swiss Gov. (1973); Welch Award, R.A. Welch Foundation, Houston, TX (1974); Cope Award, Amer. Chem. Soc. (1984); Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Israel Gov. (1986); Paracelsus Prize, Swiss Chem. Soc. Academies: Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle, Germany; Pontifical Academy of Sciences; Academia Europaea; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, MA; National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC; Royal Society, London; Akademie der Wissenschaften, Göttingen, Germany; Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ordre 'Pour le mérite', Berlin, Germany; Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Wien, Austria.

Summary of scientific research 
A. Reaction mechanism and reaction stereochemistry: Early experimental and theoretical studies relevant to terpene biosynthesis on the course and stereochemistry of acid-catalyzed cyclizations of terpenoid polyenes (biogenetic isoprene rule, together with L. Ruzicka, 1953); the stereochemical interpretation of the biogenetic isoprene rule, together with D. Arigoni and L. Ruzicka (1955); the experimental demonstration of strain release control of the oxidation of alcohols with chromic acid (1955) and of stereoelectronic control of SN2- reactions (1970); experimental and theoretical studies on nitrogen inversion (1969). B. Chemical synthesis: development of new reactions and reagents: Introduction of heterocyclic fragmentation reactions into organic synthesis (1952); epoxy-ketone -> alkinone-fragmentation (1967); amide acetal version of Claisen rearrangement (1969); methods for making C, C-bonds: enamino-iminoester condensations (1964), sulfide-contractions (1968), dimethyl-methylidene-iminium iodide (1971) and α-Chloro-nitrone reactions (1972). C. Chemical synthesis: synthesis of complex natural products and related structures: Synthesis of the alcaloid of the autumn crocus, Colchicin (1959); synthetic routes to corrins (1964, 1969); synthesis of vitamin B12 (collaboratively with R.B. Woodward) (1972); synthetic studies related to the problem of vitamin B12biosynthesis (1980). D. Contemporary studies: Chemical etiology of nucleic acid structure; experimental and theoretical studies relevant to the problem of designing chemical models of biogenesis.

Main publications
Eschenmoser, A., Zur säurekatalysierten Zyklisierung bei Mono- und Sesquiterpenverbindungen, Promotionsarbeit Nr 2018, ETH Zürich 1951; Eschenmoser, A., Ruzicka, L., Jeger, O. and Arigoni, D., Zur Kenntnis der Triterpene. Eine stereochemische Interpretation der biogenetischen Isopren regel bei den Triterpenen, Helv. Chim. Acta, 38, p. 1890 (1955); Stadler, P.A., Nechvatal, A., Frey, A.J. and Eschenmoser, A., Untersuchungen über den sterischen Verlauf säurekatalysierter Cyclisationen bei terpenoiden Polyenverbindungen, Helv. Chim. Acta, 40, p. 1373 (1957); Schreiber, J., Leimgruber, W., Pesaro, M., Schudel, P., Threlfall, T. and Eschenmoser, A., Synthese des Colchicins, Helv. Chim. Acta, 44, p. 540 (1961); Bertele, E., Boos, H., Dunitz, J.D., Elsinger, F., Eschenmoser, A., Felner, I., Gribi, H.P., Gschwend, H., Meyer, E.F., Pesaro, M. and Scheffold, R., Ein synthetischer Zugang zum Corrinsystem, Angew. Chem., 76, p. 393 (1964); Felix, D. and Eschenmoser, A., Language Inversion am pyramidal gebundenen Stickstoff: Isolierung von diastereomeren 7-Chlor-7-azabicyclo (4.1.0) heptanen bei Raumtemperatur, Angew. Chem., 80, p. 197 (1968); Yamada, Y., Miljkovic, D., Wehrli, P., Golding, B., Löliger, P., Keese, R., Müller, K. and Eschenmoser, A., Ein neuer synthetischer Zugang zum Corrinsystem, Angew. Chem., 81, p. 301 (1969); Tenud, L., Farooq, S., Seibl, J. and Eschenmoser, A., Endocyclische SN- Reaktionen am gesättigten Kohlenstoff?, Helv. Chim. Acta, 53, p. 2059 (1970); Eschenmoser, A., Roads to Corrins (Centenary Lecture), Quart. Revs., 24, p. 366 (1970); Eschenmoser, A., Post-B12 Problems in Corrin Synthesis, Chem. Soc. Revs., 5, p. 377 (1976); Eschenmoser, A., Organische Naturstoffsynthese heute. Vitamin B12 als Beispiel, Naturwiss, 61, p. 513 (1974), erweiterte Version in Englisch: Eschenmoser, A. and Wintner, C.E., Natural Product Synthesis and Vitamin B12Science, 196, p. 1410 (1977); Pfaltz, A., Juan, B., Fässler, A., Eschenmoser, A., Jaenchen, R., Gilles, H.H., Diekert, G. and Thauer, R.K., Zur Kenntnis des Faktors F430 aus methanogenen Bakterien: Struktur des porphinoiden Ligandsystems, Helv. Chim. Acta, 65, p. 828 (1982); Eschenmoser, A., Chemistry of Corphinoids, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 471, p. 108 (1986); Eschenmoser, A., Vitamin B12: Experimente zur Frage nach dem Ursprung seiner molekularen Struktur, Angew. Chem., 100, p. 5 (1988); Eschenmoser, A., Chemical Etiology of Nucleic Acid Structure, Science, 284, p. 2118 (1999).

Professional Address

Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule
Laboratorium für Organische Chemie
Universitätstrasse 16
CH-8092 Zürich (Switzerland)

The Search for the Chemistry of Life’s Origin (PDF) 2008