Zoltan Hajos

Zoltan Hajos ( born March 3, 1926 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian chemist.

Life

Zoltan Hajos studied chemistry at the Technical University of Budapest ( Budapest University of Technology ) ( completion in 1947 with M.Sc.). His doctoral work he produced from 1947 to 1950 also at the University of Budapest. His doctoral supervisor was Professor Dr. Zoltan Csuros from the Institute of organic chemical technology. One after another was Hajos assistant professor and " Lecturer" of organic chemistry at the Technical University of Budapest ( 1948-1952 ) and at the University of Veszprém / Hungary ( 1952-1953 ) and " Research Associate" of organic chemistry at the Technical University of Budapest ( 1953-1956 ). After the Hungarian freedom uprising in 1956 was defeated, Hajos left his home, fled to the U.S. and worked as "Research Associate" of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University ( 1957-1960 ). Between 1960 and 1970, Hajos as a chemist in pharmaceutical research by Hoffmann -La Roche, Inc., Nutley was, NJ (USA). As a " Research Associate", he was from 1972 to 1973 at the Chemistry Department of the University of Vermont (USA ), and then from 1973 to 1974 at the Pharmacy Faculty of the University of Toronto (Canada). From 1975 to 1990 Hajos worked at senior positions in research of the large U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

Research

Was particularly well-known Zoltan Hajos by the discovery of the Hajos- Parrish named after him -Eder -Sauer- Wiechert reaction and the associated - catalyzed by (S) -Proline - Synthesis of the Hajos-Wiechert ketone.

This Zoltan Hajos one of the pioneers in the research field of organocatalysis.

In medicinal chemistry his groundbreaking discoveries formed the basis of the development of stereospecific total synthesis of steroids. His research led to the discovery of Carsatrin, a 6- Mercaptopurinverbindung with possible heart strengthening effect.

Publications and Patents

From the research activity of Zoltan Hajos result about 45 scientific publications in scientific journals and more than 30 patents.

Selection of Publications

• Malathi R, Rajagopal D, Hajos ZG, Swaminathan S: Proline - catalysed asymmetric ketol cyclizations: The template mechanism revisited, Journal of Chemical Sciences 116 (2004) 159-162.
• ZG Hajos, DR Parrish: Asymmetric Synthesis of Bicyclic Intermediatesof Natural Product Chemistry, Journal of Organic Chemistry 39 (1974 ) 1615-1621.
• ZG Hajos, DR Parrish: Synthesis and Conversion of 2 -methyl-2 -(3- oxobutyl ) -1,3- cyclopentanedione to isomeric racemic ketol of [3.2.1 ] bicyclo of Perhydroindan Series, Journal of Organic Chemistry 39 (1974 ) from 1612 to 1615.

Teaching in Hungary

At the universities of Budapest and Veszprém Zoltan Hajos early fifties was also successful teaching worked with a lot of positive response from the students. Hajos wrote at that time about 800 pages of teaching materials.

Title page of educational material for textile chemistry from Zoltan Hajos, Budapest University of Technology (1950 )

Title page of educational material on the basics of organic chemistry by Zoltan Hajos, University of Veszprém (1953 )

Title page of educational material to applied organic chemistry by Zoltan Hajos, University of Veszprém (1953 )