Professor Wolfgang E. Pfleiderer – obituary

Professor emeritus, Dr. rer. nat. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Pfleiderer was born 1927 at Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. He began his studies of chemistry at the University of Stuttgart in November, 1946. In May, 1950 he received the Diploma (Master Degree) and in January 1952 the Ph.D. degree at the University of Stuttgart under supervision of Professor Dr. H. Bredereck. The title of his thesis was: Investigations of Purines. In January, 1957, the research entitled: Investigations in the Field of Pteridines resulted in the Habilitation at the University of Stuttgart. In March, 1958 he was appointed Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart. From May, 1958 until June, 1959 he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University with Professor Edward C. Taylor. In March, 1962 he received the appointment as apl. Professor at the University of Stuttgart. During the summer of 1963 he was appointed a Visiting Professor at the Arizona State University and his host was Professor Roland K. Robins. In late 1963 he was appointed German Editor of the Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry. He was a Visiting Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra from June, 1965 until November, 1965. His host was Professor Adrien Albert. In April, 1967 he was appointed Full Professor in Organic Chemistry at the newly founded University of Konstanz. He remained in this position until retirement. During August and September, 1977 he was a visitor at the University of Osaka. His host was Professor Dr. M. Ikehara. During March, 1980 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Baghdad, Iraq. His host was Professor Dr. M. Shanshal. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland during October, 1980. His host was Professor Dr. H. C. S. Wood. He was elected President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry for the two year period, 1982-1983. In July, 1982 he was awarded an honorary degree Dr. h.c. by the Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He was a Visiting Professor at the Fudan University, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China during September and October, 1987. He was invited again by the Australian National University as Visiting Fellow in May-June 1996 with Drs Jill E. Gready and Wilf Armarego as hosts in order that he could also visit and lecture at various other centres in Australia. Despite his disability, i.e., he lost his left hand, his lower left arm, as well as several fingers of his right hand during the 2 World War, Wolfgang Pfleiderer was an extremely active researcher. He had such a remarkable personality that his disability did not deter him in any way from becoming among the best experimentalist at the bench. Up to 2016 he and his very faithful collaborator Geeta Ramamurthy spent almost all days in the chemical laboratory at the University of Konstanz still carrying out new experiments and publishing the results. He has authored >600 scientific papers and several books. His main topics were: Organic Chemistry, Chemistry of Heterocycles, Pteridines, Purines, Pyrimidines, Nucleic acids Chemistry, Nucleosides, Nucleotides, Oligonucleotides, Protecting Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Eugen Pfleiderer *22.7.1927 †20.1.2018