Heinz Heimgartner

Heinz Heimgartner received his Diploma in chemistry from the University of Zurich (1968) and completed his Ph.D. work under the guidance of H. Schmid (1972). Throughout his career, he has been associated with the Institute of Organic Chemistry. He became Privatdozent in 1980, Titularprofessor in 1987, and in 1995 he was appointed Associate Professor. Since 2006 he is Emeritus Professor. He was awarded the Werner Prize and Medal of the Swiss Chemical Society in 1978, the Medal "In Service of Science and Society" of the University of Lodz in 2001, the Honorary Membership of the Polish Chemical Society in 2002, the Kametani Award in 2005, the Team Prize 2007 of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Lodz in 2009, and the Professor Honoris Causa of the State University St. Petersburg in 2010.

Research Interests:Research activities ranged from photochemistry and mechanisms of organic reactions to the preparation of heterocyclic compounds and the synthesis and conformation of peptides. The group has developed general methods for introduction of a,a-disubstituted glycines into linear and cyclic peptides, enabling synthesis of model peptides with restricted conformations, and possibility of naturally occurring membrane modifying peptaibols. A convenient lactone formation via direct amide cyclization enabled cyclic depsipeptides with potential ionophoric activities to be synthesized. Also new approaches to selenium containing heterocycles overcame instability and toxicity problems.