Nenad Trinajstić

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OBITUARYKre{imir Balenovi}(1914–2003)Professor Kre{imir Balenovi}, the distinguished Croatianchemist and member of the Croatian Academy of Sciencesand Arts, died on February 25, 2003. He was born onMay 17, 1914 in Zagreb, where he finished elementaryand grammar school (1933), and graduated in chemistryfrom the Faculty of Philosophy (1937). Two years later(1939), he won his doctor’s degree from the Universityof Zagreb with the thesis A Contribution to the Chemis-try of Elemi Resin Acids, written under the supervisionof Professor Milo{ Mladenovi} (1898–1973). Balenovi}did postdoctoral research from 1942 to 1943 with AlbertSzent-György (1893–1986; in 1937 he won the Nobel Prizefor medicine and physiology) at Szeged University, andfrom 1949 to 1950 with Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998; heshared with John Warcup Cornforth the Nobel Prize forchemistry in 1975) at ETH (Zürich). Later on, Balenovi}returned to ETH as visiting professor (1968–1969).From 1939 he worked as an assistant lecturer in theChemistry Division of the Faculty of Philosophy and in1945 he was appointed associate professor of organicchemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy. In 1946 he wasappointed associate professor and in 1952 full professorin the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Scienceand Mathematics. From 1946 to 1970 he served as headof the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry,and as dean of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics(1958–1959). After retirement, Balenovi} ran the Centerfor the Chemistry of Natural Organic Compounds of theCroatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (the former Yu-goslav Academy of Sciences and Arts).Balenovi} successfully collaborated with several Cro-atian companies such as Fotokemika, Chromos, Pliva. Hewas one of the founders of chemical research at theRugjer Bo{kovi} Institute (RBI) and was its externalstaff associate from 1954 to 1958. He also sat on the edi-torial boards of Croatica Chemica Acta and Tetrahe-dron. He was elected an associate member of the Yugo-slav (now Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts in1958 and its regular member in 1975. He received theLife Achievement Award in 1985. He was also one ofthe first six vice-presidents of the newly established in-dependent Republic of Croatia.Balenovi}’s research has been published in a num-ber of research papers in the field of natural organic com-pounds, amino acids, sulfur organic compounds and poly-ketones. His research was primarily focused on naturalcompounds of interesting physiological action but he alsoworked in pure organic chemistry, viz., on preparation oforganic compounds and their structure determination. Hisextensive work can be classified into six major fields:– In pure organic chemistry he mostly dealt withanalysis, structure determination and synthesis of orga-nic compounds, such as disulfides and selenoxides;– He studied amino acids, particularly the chemistryand stereochemistry of ß-amino acids, solving their struc-ture and determining their relationship to -amino acidsand then using the obtained results to explain the stereo-chemistry of alkaloids;– He studied optically active -amino aldehydes;– From -diazoketones he synthesized amino gly-oxals and amino hydroxy acids;– He did research on polyoxo compounds, notablyspecial reactions of -, -, - and -tetraketones; and– He studied natural and biologically active com-pounds, especially alkaloids.CROATICA CHEMICA ACTACCACAA 76 (1) A3¿A4 (2003)He took part in many scientific meetings and con-gresses at which he usually delivered plenary lectures.Some of his most notable lectures were those given atthe 16th IUPAC Congress (Paris, 1957), 4th InternationalCongress on Biochemistry (Vienna, 1958), Ciba Sympo-sium on Amino Acids and Peptides with Antimetabolicand Cytotoxic Properties (London, 1958), InternationalSymposium on Organic Chemistry dedicated to the studyof natural products (Brussels, 1962), 19th IUPAC Con-gress (London, 1963), 2nd Meeting of the Federation ofEuropean Biochemical Societies (Vienna, 1965), Interna-tional Symposium on the Constitution and ResponseAbilities of Organic Compounds (Sofia, 1966), 5th Inter-national Symposium on the Chemism of Natural Products(London, 1968), etc. As a prominent Croatian organicchemist, he won international reputation for his work instereochemistry and chemistry of ß-amino acids, synthesisof the antibiotic Sulforafen and polyketone chemistry.Together with Professor Bo`o Te`ak (1907–1980),Professor Balenovi} played an important role in interna-tionalizing our journal. In 1946 he was elected to the Edi-torial Board of our journal, then called Arhiv za kemiju(Archives for Chemistry). In 1955, he signed a proposalto change the name Arhiv za kemiju into Croatica Che-mica Acta (CCA). Other chemists who cosigned the pro-posal were Te`ak (who was Editor-in-Chief of Arhiv zakemiju), Karlo Schulz, Dionis Sunko, Petar Alaupovi},Egon Matijevi}, Velimir Vouk and Josip Kratohvil. Afterconsiderable lobbying for their proposal, they succeededin adopting the present name of the journal. Furthermore,they also moved for the papers published in CCA to bewritten in one of the major European languages (English,German, French, Russian). Eventually, English becamethe language of our journal. However, the first paper inEnglish was published long before this change, in 1946.This paper was written jointly by Kre{imir Balenovi} andhis doctoral student Rikard Munk (1918–1970). Baleno-vi} was also president of the Croatian Chemical Society(1956–1957) and its vice-president (1958–1959).At the end of this rather brief account of the life andwork of Professor Kre{imir Balenovi}, I wish to add afew personal remarks. I heard about Balenovi} while Iwas still an undergraduate student in the Department ofChemical Technology of the Faculty of Technology. Af-ter graduating, I joined the Research Institute of PLIVA,then and now the largest pharmaceutical company in thesoutheast of Europe. I decided to continue my chemicaleducation by entering, as an undergraduate student, theDepartment of Chemistry of the Faculty of Science andMathematics. Several days after submitting my applica-tion, I got a letter from Professor Balenovi}, in which hesuggested my enrolling into the graduate school insteadof starting undergraduate studies at the same faculty. Iwent to see him and he explained to me the advantagesof getting a M.Sc. degree instead of another B.Sc. de-gree. I entered the graduate school, left PLIVA and gotboth M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, never regretting havingfollowed Professor Balenovi}’s advice. The point of thisstory is that Balenovi} did not know me, I was not hisundergraduate student and had no contact with peoplefrom the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Sci-ence and Mathematics. I suppose he decided I was worthhelping just by looking through my documents. Later on,I attended his lectures in organic chemistry; they weresuperb. Balenovi} also delivered a series of excellentlectures on magnetic resonance spectroscopy for gradu-ate students. He gave me the chance for my first publiclecture. I talked about polarography of organic compounds,because I was doing research for a B.Techn. degree inpolarography. I am therefore one of the many people whowill always remain grateful to Professor Balenovi} for hisdecisive help in my beginnings as a research chemist.Nenad Trinajsti}A4 OBITUARYCroat. Chem. Acta 76 (1) A3–A4 (2003)

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