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 (TU Budapest) (graduated in 1947 with an M.Sc.). He completed his doctoral thesis at the Technical University of Budapest from 1947 to 1950. His doctoral supervisor was Zoltan Csuros from the Institute for Organic Chemical Technology. Successively Hajos was assistant professor and "Lecturer" for organic chemistry at the TU Budapest (1948 to 1952) and at the University of Veszprém / Hungary (1952 to 1953) as well as "Research Associate" for organic chemistry at the TU Budapest (1953 to 1956) . After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed, Hajos left his homeland, fled to the USA and worked as a “Research Associate” for organic chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University (1957 to 1960). Between 1960 and 1970, Hajos worked as a chemist in pharmaceutical research at Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. in Nutley , NJ (USA). As a "Research Associate" he worked at the Chemistry Department of the University of Vermont (USA) from 1972 to 1973 and then from 1973 to 1974 at the Pharmacy Faculty of the University of Toronto (Canada). From 1975 to 1990 Hajos worked in prominent positions in research at the large US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson .

Research areas

Title page of the Offenlegungsschrift (German patent application) No. 21 02 623, published on July 29, 1971

Zoltan Hajos became particularly well known for his discovery of the Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction and the associated synthesis of the Hajos-Wiechert ketone, which is catalyzed by ( S ) - proline .

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

In medicinal chemistry, his pioneering discoveries formed the basis for the development of stereospecific total syntheses of steroids . His research also led to the discovery of carsatrin , a 6-mercaptopurine compound with possible cardiac tonic effects.

Publications and patents

Zoltan Hajos' research activities have resulted in around 45 scientific publications in specialist journals and over 30 patents.

Publications

R. Malathi, D. Rajagopal, ZG Hajos, S. Swaminathan: Proline-catalysed asymmetric ketol cyclizations: The template mechanism revisited. In: Journal of Chemical Sciences. 116, 2004, pp. 159-162.
ZG Hajos, DR Parrish: Asymmetric Synthesis of Bicyclic Intermediates of Natural Product Chemistry. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry . 39, 1974, pp. 1615-1621.
ZG Hajos, DR Parrish: Synthesis and Conversion of 2-Methyl-2- (3-oxobutyl) -1,3-cyclopentanedione to isomeric Racemic Ketols of [3.2.1] Bicyclooctanes of Perhydroindane Series. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry. 39, 1974, pp. 1612-1615.

Teaching activity in Hungary

At the beginning of the 1950s, Zoltan Hajos was also a successful teacher at the Universities of Budapest and Veszprém, with a very positive response from the students. During this time, Hajos wrote over 800 pages of teaching materials.

Title page of teaching material on organic chemical technology by Zoltan Hajos, TU Budapest (1952)
Title page of teaching material on textile chemistry by Zoltan Hajos, TU Budapest (1950)
Title page of teaching material on the basics of organic chemistry by Zoltan Hajos, University of Veszprém (1953)
Title page of teaching material on applied organic chemistry by Zoltan Hajos, University of Veszprém (1953)

Individual evidence

↑ Takashi Nagamine, Kohei Inomata, Yasuyuki Endo, Leo A. Paquette : Amino acid mediated intramolecular asymmetric aldol reaction to construct a new chiral bicyclic enedione containing a seven-membered ring: Remarkable inversion of enantioselectivity compared to the six-membered ring example. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry . 72, 2007, pp. 123-131.
^ RA Micheli, ZG Hajos, N. Cohen, DR Parrish, LA Portland, W. Sciamanna, MA Scott, PA Wehrli: Total Syntheses of optically-active 19-Norsteroids - (+) - Estr-4-ene-3,17 -dione and (+) - 13β-ethylgon-4-ene-3,17-dione. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry. 40, 1975, pp. 675-681.
↑ JB Press, R. Falotico, ZG Hajos, RA Sawyers, RM Kanojia, L. Williams, B. Haertlein, JA Kauffman, C. Lakas-Weiss, JJ Salata: Synthesis and SAR of 6-substituted purine derivatives as novel selective positive inotropes. In: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 35, 1992, pp. 4509-4515. PMID 1335073 .

personal data
SURNAME	Hajos, Zoltan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hajos, Zoltan G.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Hungarian chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 3, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Budapest

[Paquette-1] Takashi Nagamine, Kohei Inomata, Yasuyuki Endo, Leo A. Paquette : Amino acid mediated intramolecular asymmetric aldol reaction to construct a new chiral bicyclic enedione containing a seven-membered ring: Remarkable inversion of enantioselectivity compared to the six-membered ring example. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry . 72, 2007, pp. 123-131.

[Hajos-2] RA Micheli, ZG Hajos, N. Cohen, DR Parrish, LA Portland, W. Sciamanna, MA Scott, PA Wehrli: Total Syntheses of optically-active 19-Norsteroids - (+) - Estr-4-ene-3,17 -dione and (+) - 13β-ethylgon-4-ene-3,17-dione. In: Journal of Organic Chemistry. 40, 1975, pp. 675-681.

[3] JB Press, R. Falotico, ZG Hajos, RA Sawyers, RM Kanojia, L. Williams, B. Haertlein, JA Kauffman, C. Lakas-Weiss, JJ Salata: Synthesis and SAR of 6-substituted purine derivatives as novel selective positive inotropes. In: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 35, 1992, pp. 4509-4515. PMID 1335073 .