Ruzicka, Leopold Stephen

Ruzicka, Leopold Stephen (1887-1976)

20th Century
Born: Vukovar (now Croatia), 1887
Died: Mammern (Switzerland), 1976
 
Ruzicka studied chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe (Germany), where he received his doctorate under H. Staudinger (1910). After a professorship in Utrecht (The Netherlands) (1927-1929) he became professor of chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institut for Technology (ETH). His main work started in 1921. It involved: macrocyclic compounds, higher terpenes and steroids. He shared the Nobel Prize with Butenandt in 1939. His "biogenetic isoprene rule", which was pioneered by Wallach, became, in 1953, the crowning of his life.

Related Links

Link icon  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1939
"for his work on sex hormones" "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes"