Henri Brunner (chemist)

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Henri Brunner (2005)

Henri Brunner (born October 4, 1935 in Burkhardtsdorf / Erzgebirge) is a German chemist and university professor.

Life

Brunner passed his Abitur at the Oberrealschule in Deggendorf in 1956 and began studying chemistry at the University of Munich , which he was able to complete in 1960 as a graduate chemist. 1963 Brunner at Munich University with a dissertation on the subject was "metallation of dibenzenechromium" doctorate , his supervisor was the Nobel laureate Ernst Otto Fischer (1918-2007). In 1964 Brunner was a post doc at the University of California in Los Angeles with Herbert D. Kaesz . After returning from the United States, he completed his habilitation in 1969 at the Technical University of Munich with a thesis on “The nitrosyl ligand in metal complexes”, with Ernst Otto Fischer again being his mentor.

In 1971 Brunner accepted an offer to the chair for inorganic chemistry at the University of Regensburg and stayed there until his retirement in 2004. He had declined offers to the University of Essen and the University of Florida .

Visiting professorships in the USA, Venezuela, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland testify to Brunner's internationally recognized reputation.

Brunner led 150 academic students to doctorate . Professors Wolfgang A. Herrmann (President of the Technical University of Munich ), Walter Leitner (Chair for Technical Chemistry and Petrochemistry at RWTH Aachen University ), Andreas Terfort ( University of Frankfurt ) and Jürgen Klankermayer (Translational Molecular Catalysis, RWTH Aachen University) are from his working group. emerged.

Honors

As early as 1956, Brunner was awarded a Hundhammer scholarship and from 1958 he was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation . He was awarded the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize (1970) and the Horst Pracejus Prize (1999) from the Society of German Chemists (GDCh) . He received the Prize of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (1984), the Franco-German Alexander von Humboldt Prize (1993) and the Max Planck Research Prize (1997). He has received numerous other honors, such as the honorary doctorate from his previous place of work, the Technical University of Munich (2004).

Scientific work

Henri Brunner conducts research in the field of stereoselective catalysis using organometallic complexes. In this way, molecules can be synthesized selectively with a desired spatial structure. This can be of decisive importance for the properties and applications of the product, especially with regard to the different pharmacological effects of pure enantiomeric chiral drugs . Groundbreaking was Brunner's finding that organometallic complex compounds , in which organic molecular residues are arranged around a central metal atom, can have a “stable chirality”. Initially it was tetrahedral complexes that Brunner was able to isolate enantiomerically pure (1969), but complex compounds with square-pyramidal and octahedral structures were soon added (1972). Using these examples, which are now textbook knowledge, he investigated how chirality can be transferred from the catalyst (metal complex) to the synthesis product. The chirality at the metal atom in organometallic compounds is still an untapped treasure in the elucidation of reaction mechanisms .

Brunner also researched chiral phosphanes with a cyclic structure - a structural principle that was to prove successful in stereoselective reactions in organic chemistry and is widely used in natural product chemistry and the synthesis of medicinal products. William S. Knowles , Barry Sharpless and Ryoji Noyori were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001 for the discovery of industrially important enantioselective catalysis processes for organic compounds (such as the Parkinson's drug L- DOPA , Sharpless epoxidation and the synthesis of L - menthol ). Pioneering work in Brunner's laboratory and later research on the synthesis of enantiomerically pure ( S ) - naproxen , an anti-inflammatory drug, as well as the injection narcotic methohexital (Brevimytal) and folic acid derivatives occur at the same time.

The extraordinary scientific work of Brunner is documented in around 500 original publications and many review articles. In addition, Brunner translated complex scientific facts into a generally understandable language. His book on the phenomena of chirality “right or left” has found wide distribution. His two-volume "Handbook of Enantioselective Catalysis with Transition Metal Compounds" is one of the standard works in the field.

The Hirsch-Index of Henri Brunner achieved the outstanding value of 44 (as of 29 January 2011).

Selection of other important publications

  • Henri Brunner: Optical Activity at the Asymmetric Manganese Atom . Angewandte Chemie 81 (1969) 395-396. Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English 8 (1969) 382-383.
  • Henri Brunner: Optical Activity on Asymmetric Transition Metal Atoms . Angewandte Chemie 83 (1969) 274-285. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English 10 (1971) 249-260.
  • Henri Brunner, Willigis Pieronczyk: Asymmetric hydrogenation of (Z) -α- (acetylamino) cinnamic acid with a Rh / norphos catalyst , Angewandte Chemie 91 (1979) 655-656; Angewandte Chemie International Edition 18 (1979) 620-621.
  • Henri Brunner: Chiral Metal Atoms in Optically Active Organotransition Metal Compounds , Advances in Organometallic Chemistry 18 (1980) 151-206.
  • Henri Brunner: Optically active organometallic compounds of the transition elements with chiral metal atoms . Angewandte Chemie 111 (1999) 1248-1263; Angewandte Chemie International Edition 38 (1999) 1194-1208.
  • Henri Brunner, Karl-Christian Bart, Guenther Bernhardt, Christian Lottner: Hematoporphyrin-Derived Soluble Porphyrin-Platinum Conjugates with Combined Cytotoxic and Phototoxic Antitumor Activity , Journal of Medicinal Chemistry , 45 (2002) 2064-2078.
  • Henri Brunner, Manfred Muschiol, Manfred Zabel: Synthesis of (R, R) - and (S, S) -Norphos , Synthesis (2008) 405-408.
  • Henri Brunner, Takashi Tsuno: Ligand Dissociation: Planar or Pyramidal Intermediates? Accounts of Chemical Research 42 (2009) 1501-1510.
  • Henri Brunner: Glass rods manipulate genetic information , Nachrichten aus der Chemie 58 (2010) 451–452.

Activity as editor of scientific journals

Brunner was co-editor of several magazines:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Henri Brunner at academictree.org, accessed on January 22, 2018.
  2. ^ Hermann J. Roth, Christa E. Müller, Gerd Folkers: Stereochemistry and Drugs , Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1998, ISBN 3-8047-1485-4 .
  3. ^ Henri Brunner: Right or Left , Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim / Bergstrasse, 1999, ISBN 3-527-29974-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Brunner, Henri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Burkhardtsdorf