Leopold Ružička

Early life Ružička was born in Vukovar (at the time in the Syrmia County of Austria-Hungary, today in Croatia). His family of craftsmen and farmers was mostly of Croat origin, with a Czech great-grandparent, Ružička, and a great-grandmother and a great-grandfather from Austria. He lost his father, Stjepan, at the age of four, and his mother, Amalija Sever, took him and his younger brother Stjepan, to live in Osijek. He remained in this field of research all his life. He investigated the ingredients of the Dalmatian insect powder Pyrethrum (from the herb Tanacetum cinerariifolium), a highly esteemed insecticide found in pyrethrins, which were the focus of his work with Staudinger. Ružička later said of this time: "Toward the end of five and a half years of mainly synthetic work on the pyrethrins I had come to the firm conclusion that we were barking up the wrong tree." In this way, he came into contact with the chemistry of Terpineol, a fragrant oil of vegetable origin, interesting to the perfume industry. He and Staudinger split company when he started cooperation with the Chuit & Naef Company (later known as Firmenich) in Geneva. These were the first natural products shown to have rings with more than six atoms, and at the time that Ružička inferred that civetone as having a 17-member ring. Synthetic techniques at the time were only known for rings of up to eight members. Muscone had been isolated in 1904 but was not identified as 3-methylcyclopentadecanone until Ružička suspected a macrocycle, having characterised civetone. He also developed a method for synthesising macrocycles, now known as the Ružička large ring synthesis, which he demonstrated by preparing civetone in 1927.

In 1921, the Geneva perfume manufacturers Chuit & Naef asked him to collaborate.

In 1934, Ružička synthesized the male hormone androsterone and also proved "its constitutional and configurational relation to the sterols." This was followed in 1935 by the partial synthesis of the much more active male hormone testosterone. Both discoveries led to the pre-eminence of the Swiss industry in the steroid hormone field. He was awarded in 1936 an honorary degree from Harvard University. in 1942 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society, During World War II, some of his excellent collaborators were lost, but Ružička restructured his laboratory with new, younger and promising people; among them was young scientist and future Nobel laureate Vladimir Prelog. With new people and ideas new research areas were opened.

In 1946, Ružička and Lardon "established that the fragrance of ambergris is based on the triterpene (named) ambrein". In 1952, Oskar Jeger and he supervised a team which isolated lanosterol and established the link between terpenes and steroids. Ružička retired in 1957, turning over the running of the laboratory to Prelog.

Later life, legacy, honours and awards Ružička was the recipient of eight honorary doctorates and the 1938 Marcel Benoist Prize. and he was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Ružička reaction is named after him.

Personal life Ružička married twice: to Anna Hausmann in 1912, and in 1951 to Gertrud Acklin.