Nenad Trinajstić

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OBITUARYDragutin Fle{(1921–2005)Dragutin Fle{ was born in Vukovar on August 1, 1921.He finished elementary and secondary school in Zemunand after passing the school-leaving exam in 1941, heenrolled in the Technical Faculty in Belgrade. He gradu-ated from the Chemical Technology Department of theTechnical Faculty in Zagreb in 1946. During his studentdays, from 1943 to 1946, he also worked in the labora-tory of the Zagreb power station. After graduating, hegot a job in Pliva, Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Com-pany, where he worked in the chemotherapeutic divisionon the production of Neoarsphenamine, and preparationof arsenobenzene, organocadmium and organoantimonycompounds. In 1950 he worked, within the Foreign Stu-dent Summer Project, at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA),on the preparation of -carotene in the laboratory of Pro-fessor Nicholas A. Milas. This research led to the firsttotal preparation of -carotene. He earned his doctor’sdegree at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics (Za-greb) in 1952 for his work on the preparation of active-amino acids containing sulphur--cystine, -cystine,-methionine and -amino djenkolic acid. His supervi-sor was Professor Kre{imir Balenovi} (1914–2003). Hedescribed his collaboration with Balenovi} in a memorialbooklet entitled Kre{imir Balenovi} (1914–2003) (editedby N. Trinajsti}, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts,Zagreb, 2004, 17–29). This collaboration produced fourpapers. After getting the PhD, Fle{ went back to MIT andspent a year (1952/1953) there as a postdoctoral residentwith Milas. He spent the school year 1958/1959 as a fel-low of the Alfred P. Sloane Foundation working with Pro-fessor Roger Adams at the University of Illinois, Urbana(USA). There he worked on the preparation of opticallyactive alcohols from the group of senecio alkaloids. Hepublished three papers with Adams.He left Pliva in 1960 and moved to the Organic-che-mical Industry (OKI), Zagreb, where he was appointeddirector of the OKI Sector (later Institute) for Researchand Development of Petrochemicals and held that posi-tion until 1971. When, due to reorganization of researchwork in oil and petrochemical industries, a research anddevelopment institute was established in the petroleum in-dustry (Industrija nafte – INA), the OKI Institute becameits component part (INA-OKI). Fle{ continued workingin that institute as head of laboratory research on poly-mers (1971–1985), member of the Managing Board andadviser, until he retired in 1985.Although he spent all his professional life in indus-trial organizations, he also taught courses in stereoche-mistry and synthetic organic chemistry at the Faculty ofNatural Sciences and Mathematics in Zagreb. He was oneof the founders of the postgraduate course in macromo-lecular sciences at the University of Zagreb and attracteda number of young and gifted chemists to polymer sci-ence.He was visiting professor at the Johannes GutenbergUniversität in Mainz (Germany) in 1977 and at the Uni-versity of Massachusetts (Amherst, USA) in 1984. Hewas elected an associate member of the Yugoslav Acad-emy of Sciences and Arts in 1981, in the Academy Divi-sion of Mathematical, Physical, Chemical and TechnicalSciences. In 1991, he became a full member of the newlycalled Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (thename change happened in 1991). He was among thosewho initiated the establishment of a separate AcademyCROATICA CHEMICA ACTACCACAA 78 (4) A29¿A30 (2005)division for technical sciences. This division was found-ed in 1997 and he served as its first secretary. He was amember of the Croatian Chemical Society, Croatian So-ciety of Chemical Engineers and Technologists, Associ-ation of Plastics and Rubber Manufacturers, etc.The scope of his scientific interests was very wide.His research work can be divided into five fields: 1. Pre-paration and stereochemistry of compounds with biolog-ical action (e.g., preparation and determination of theabsolute configuration of chloramphenicol and pseudo-norefedrine, steric course of asymmetric induction inMeerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction of -phthalimide ---substituted propiophenones, preparation of antihista-mines, antitussives, anticoagulants, antihypertonics, -aletines, amidones); 2. Preparation and characterizationof optically active polymers (e.g., preparation of poly-amides, poly--thiolactanes and poly--thiolactones, ste-reoregulated polymerization with Ziegler-Natta catalysts);3. Preparation and characterization of copolymers form-ed with the aid of electron-donor-acceptor complexes(e.g., copolymerization of phenyl-vinyl-alkylethers andthioethers with maleic acid anhydride and N-phenylmale-imide, copolymerization of -methylstyrene and -methyl-styrene with maleic acid anhydride, maleimide and N-substituted maleimide); 4. Preparation and characteriza-tion of polymers showing crystal properties in liquidstate (e.g., preparation of homopolymers of N-(4-pheno-xyphenyl)maleimide and copolymers with styrene andsubstituted  and  derivatives), and 5. Miscellaneoustopics (e.g., stabilization and degradation of polyethyl-ene, spin testing). He published more than 250 scientificand technical papers, and had 31 patents protected. Fle{described his own research in his Autobiographical Ac-count of Research in Chemistry 1946–2002 (HKDI/Ke-mija u industriji, Zagreb, 2003).He was awarded the state award for science RugjerBo{kovi} in 1978 and the Life-achievement Award in1989. On the occasion of his 75th birthday, two issues(3–4) of Polymers (18 (1997)) were dedicated to his lifeand work, containing a number of articles by his formerstudents and collaborators from Croatia and abroad.Dragutin Fle{ passed away on June 11, 2005 in Za-greb.Nenad Trinajsti}30Croat. Chem. Acta 78 (4) A29–A30 (2005)

Dragutin Fleš (1921–2005)

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