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| Impressum Webmaster |
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| > News > Portrait of the Month | ||||||
| On the 25th
Anniversary of the Death of the Chemist Leopold Ruzicka (13 September 1887 - 26 September 1976) |
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| Portrait |
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| Biography | Leopold Ruzicka was born on 13 September 1887 in Vukovar (Croatia). He studied chemistry at the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe between 1906 and 1910 und was an assistant lecturer at the ETH Zurich between 1912 and 1916. He then worked in the chemical industry. At the same time, he lectured at the ETH and was appointed Professor in 1923. In 1927, he moved to the University of Utrecht as Professor of Organic Chemistry, returning to the ETH Zurich in 1929 to succeed Richard Kuhn as Professor. He remained at the ETH until he was awarded emeritus status in 1957. In 1939, Ruzicka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on polymethylene and higher terpene compounds. He was also politically active (in the Swiss-Jugoslav aid organization and in protests against nuclear weapons) and gained a reputation as an art collector. He donated a number of paintings by Dutch masters to the Zurich Museum of Fine Art, and established a Ruzicka Foundation with the aim of adding to this collection within the Museum. Every year, the ETH awards the Ruzicka Prize, supported by the chemical industry, to young chemists working in Switzerland. | |||||
| Recording | Extracts from an interview with
Vladimir Prelog on March 4th, 1974: Two audio excerpts of 1-2.5 minutes each
(in German). Ruzicka talks about his origins, his studies in Karlsruhe, RealPlayer or similar required to listen to the audio documents. |
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| The audio documents originate from the holdings of the Picture Achive (mp3 files produced by Hans Koch, Picture Archive). | ||||||
| Holdings | The Archive of the ETH Zurich holds a collection of Ruzicka's own scientific works. Part of the collection is covered by a directory that can be borrowed (a larger body of works, acquired subsequently, has not yet been cataloged). There is also a comprehensive biographical file. The Old Prints collection contains some of Ruzicka's earlier works. Several works can also be borrowed from the open shelf library. The Picture Archive has a variety of portraits of Ruzicka. | |||||
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| Telegram giving notification of the 1939 Nobel Prize. | ||||||
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| Ruzicka's handwritten notes on terpene. | ||||||
| Links |
Nobel-Museum
Swiss Nobel Prize winners Dutch masters at the Zurich Museum of Fine Art |
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08.02.2007