SYMPOSIUM MARKING FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF PRELOG'S DEATH

ZAGREB, Jan 7 (Hina) - A symposium entitled "In memoriam Vladimir Prelog 1906-1998" was held at the Renaissance Hall at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) Monday on the fourth anniversary of the death of this Nobel award winner, the HAZU honorary member, and one of the greatest Croatian scientists. The HAZU president, academician Ivo Padovan, said there was no doubt Prelog was one of the greatest Croatian scientists. The event was organised by the HAZU and the Zagreb University in cooperation with the Science and Technology Ministry, the Faculty of chemical engineering and technology, the Croatian chemical society and Zagreb's pharmaceutical company "Pliva". Speeches held during the occasion mentioned Prelog's school of organic chemistry and his contribution to cooperation between scientific and economic institutions, particularly "Pliva". Vladimir Prelog was born July 23, 1906 in Sarajevo. He attended a high school in Zagreb and Osijek, and earned the degree of chemical engineer at a higher technical school in Prague, where he also completed a doctorate degree in 1929. By the Faculty of technology at the Zagreb University invitation, Prelog accepted the position of senior lecturer in organic chemistry and took on the leadership of the organic chemistry institute. Prelog left Zagreb in 1941 when he started working at a higher technical school in Zurich in laboratories of the second leading figure of Croatian and world's science, Lavoslav Ruzicka. After Ruzicka's retirement in 1957, Prelog took over the organic chemistry laboratory. Prelog won the Nobel prize in 1975 for his merits in the area of natural compounds and stereo-chemistry along with a British researcher J.W. Comfort. Prelog died in his home in Zurich on January 7, 1998. At HAZU's initiative, Prelog's mortal remains were transferred to Zagreb and buried at the HAZU mausoleum. (hina) np sb