Horst Pracejus

Horst Pracejus (born September 3, 1927 in Arnswalde , Neumark, † July 30, 1987 in Rostock ) was a German chemist ( organic chemistry ). He was professor and head of the Catalysis Research Institute in Rostock, a branch of the Central Institute for Organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (today Leibniz Institute for Catalysis ). He is known for stereoselective catalysis.

Pracejus had been working in the field of asymmetric catalysis since the 1950s. The research went into the production of Isicom (1986), an anti-Parkinson’s drug from the GDR (based on L-dopa ), produced by VEB Isis-Chemie in Zwickau . For its industrial application enantiosektiv catalyzed hydrogenation to produce L-dopa in the US chemical company Monsanto was William S. Knowles 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry .

In his honor, the Society of German Chemists (GDCh) awards the Horst Pracejus Prize for special achievements in stereoselective catalysis . He was a member of the Leopoldina (1969). In 1965 he received the Friedrich Wöhler Prize and in 1983 the August Kekulé Medal .

Individual evidence

^ Rüdiger Selke The other L-Dopa process , in Hans-Ulrich Blaser, Elke Schmidt (editor) Asymmetric catalysis on industrial scale , Wiley-VCH, 2004.
^ Chemists from A - Z. A biographical-lexical overview of chemistry and its most important representatives in East Germany , editor: Chemieverbände Nordost, Berlin, 2006, 2nd edition, pp. 72–73.

personal data
SURNAME	Pracejus, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German chemist (organic chemistry)
DATE OF BIRTH	September 3, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH	Arnswalde , Neumark
DATE OF DEATH	July 30, 1987
Place of death	Rostock

[1] Rüdiger Selke The other L-Dopa process , in Hans-Ulrich Blaser, Elke Schmidt (editor) Asymmetric catalysis on industrial scale , Wiley-VCH, 2004.

[ChemikerAZ-2] Chemists from A - Z. A biographical-lexical overview of chemistry and its most important representatives in East Germany , editor: Chemieverbände Nordost, Berlin, 2006, 2nd edition, pp. 72–73.