Albert Eschenmoser
| Albert Eschenmoser | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 5, 1925 Erstfeld, Switzerland |
| Residence | Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Fields | organic chemistry |
| Institutions | ETH Zurich |
| Alma mater | ETH Zurich |
| Doctoral advisor | Lavoslav Ružička |
| Known for | Synthesis of vitamin B12 (along with Woodward) |
| Notable awards |
Marcel Benoist Prize (1972) Davy Medal (1978) |
Albert Eschenmoser (born August 5, 1925) is a Swiss organic chemist best known for his work on the synthesis of complex heterocyclic natural compounds, most notably vitamin B12. In addition to his significant contributions to the field of organic synthesis, Eschenmoser pioneered work in the Origins of Life (OoL) field with work on the synthetic pathways of artificial nucleic acids. Before retiring in 2009, Eschenmoser held tenured teaching positions at the ETH Zurich and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California as well as visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Cambridge University, and Harvard.
Eschenmoser began his scientific career as a graduate student in the laboratory of Leopold Ružička, at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich. Ruzicka was a notable organic chemist himself having been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his work on the synthesis of androsterone and testosterone. Eschenmoser’s early work on the cyclization of unsaturated, conjugated hydrocarbons directly contributed to advances in the field of terpene chemistry and provided insight into steroid biosynthesis.
In the early 1960s, having become Professor of General Organic Chemistry at ETH, Eschenmoser began work on what was the most complex natural product synthesized at the time—vitamin B12. In a remarkable collaboration with his colleague Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard University, a team of almost one hundred students and postdoctoral workers worked for many years on the synthesis of this molecule. At the time, a significant obstacle to the synthesis of vitamin B12 had been the difficulty in forming the macrocyclic ring closure necessary to complete the corrin ring structure at the center of the molecule. However during this time, Eschenmoser and his collaborators discovered a number reaction conditions under which this bond could be formed with a high degree of stereospecificity, including a novel process known as the “A/D variant.” The work was finally published in 1973, and it marked a landmark in the history of organic chemistry.
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