Osman Achmatowicz
Osman Achmatowicz (April 16, 1899 – December 4, 1988) was a Polish professor of chemistry of Lipka Tatar descent. His son, Osman Achmatowicz Jr., (also a chemist) is credited with the Achmatowicz reaction in 1971. Biography. Professor Osman Achmatowicz was a Polish Tatar of Islamic confession. The sixth of eight children in a noble family of an outstanding jurist Alexander Achmatowicz, he was born at the ancestral estate Bergaliszki, near Oszmania, on 16 March 1899. Educated at the Royal Corps in St. Petersburg (named Petrograd in 1914,renamed Leningrad in 1924), he was admitted to higher studies at the Mining  Institute of Petrograd in 1916, and after interruption of its functions caused by the Bolshevik uprising, went to the Ukrainian Industrial Region, where he found a temporary employment as an apprentice at the coal mine Golubowka in the Donetsk Basin. In 1919, after his arrival in Poland, freshly restored to independence (by The Versailles Treaty), he continued his studies at the faculty of Natural Sciences of the resurrected Vilnius University, named after the Polish king, Stephen Batory, and graduated with a diploma of a master of chemistry in 1924. His post graduate studies consisted of two consecutive parts: On Return  to Vilno, Achmatowicz rejoined the teaching staff of the organic chemistry department of the university, where he continued his research on the structure of strychnos alkaloids. He devised a new method of degradation using hydrogenolysis of quaternary ammonium salts containing nitrogen in allyl position, in the presence of palladinized charcoal as catalyst. This method became crucial in studies on organic compounds and was subsequently modified by other research workers over rupture of carbon-oxygen bonds. Achmatowicz’s discovery of catalytic hydrogenolysis was assessed by the board of faculty as an important contribution to the advancement of degradation methods in organic  chemistry and for this work Achmatowicz received the title of docent in 1933. In the following year, 1934, Achmatowicz was appointed professor extraordinaire to the chair of pharmaceutical and toxicological chemistry, belonging to the faculty of pharmacy of the University of Warsaw. This appointment meant that Achmatowicz was allocated increased research funds and better research facilities, and in subsequent research he: Achmatowicz carried out further work on the problems of strychnine chemistry in the 1960s with his son Selim, J. Skolik, M. Wiewiorowski and J. Szychowski. The paper resulting from this work was published in 1966 in the volume of  Tetrahedron and dedicated to Sir Robert Robinson, founder of the journal. After joining the faculty of pharmacy Achmatowicz developed further research-programs with potential significance for medical sciences, as well as for pharmacy. He embarked on phytochemical research on Polish flora, specifically on physiologically active organic components of wild growing plants used in Polish folk-medicine. The following rare species were recommended by Professors J. Muszynski (pharmacognosy department, University of Wilno) and J. Modrakowski (department of experimental pharmacology, University of Warsaw): a) Club-Mosses (Lycopodium clavatum, B.selago, L.annotinum) b) Yellow water-lily (Nuphar luteum) and white water-lily (Nymphacea alba ) After two years Achmatowicz in conjunction with the Polish pharmaceutical industry and Spiess and Son (scientific director Dr St. Otolski, chairman F. Wieckowski) succeeded in isolating and characterising, a number of hitherto unknown alkaloids. In September 1939 all research was halted by the outbreak of war and Achmatowicz’s laboratory and research files were destroyed in subsequent bombing. During the German occupation, all universities in Poland were closed and disbanded but Achmatowicz undertook secret underground teaching for student groups in Warsaw and Czestochowa. When the war finished Achmatowicz helped inaugurate the Technical University of Łódź. The first Rector, Professor B.  Stefanowski, had suggested that it move from Warsaw to Łódź. Specifically he organised the chemical faculty of the Technical University of Łódź, as well as his own research workshop under the chair of organic chemistry. This was made possible by a generous grant from the Royal Society, London, facilitated by Sir Robert Robinson, president of the society. Other substantial financial aid was graciously rendered by General Stanisław Kopański, chief of staff of the Polish Armed Forces, stationed in Great Britain at that time. By 1948 the chemical faculty had its own premises with relatively modern research facilities. Cooperating with Polish  chemical industry Achmatowicz undertook research: He succeeded in plotting new synthetic routes to hitherto unknown sulphones (in conjunction with E. Maruszewska-Wieczorkowska and J. Michalski) The work initiated by Achmatowicz, in 1938, on the structure and bases of club-mosses alkaloids was further developed by organic chemists in 1942 in Canada, and later still in Germany. Achmatowicz resumed his research on Lycopodium alkaloids, and on Nuphar alkaloids, in the 1950s, when his Łódź laboratory was sponsored by the National Culture Fund (director: Stanisław Leszczycki) and by the Polish Academy of Sciences. However, only in the 1960s was it possible for  his laboratory to apply chromatographic and spectroscopic investigations and achieve significant and ground-breaking results, as annotated below: Particularly important and fruitful were the studies on alkaloids of Nuphar luteum. In 1960-1962 Achmatowicz (co-workers; Z. Bellen and J. Wrobel) succeeded in separating four new alkaloids containing sulphur from this plant. Studies on the separation of these unusual bases were accompanied by studies on their structure (co-workers Mrs H. Banaszek and J. Wrobel). For the mass-spectroscopic examination involved the help of Dr G. Spiteller (Institute of Organic Chemistry, Vienna University) was enlisted. The new alkaloids were named : thiobinupharidine and neothiobinupharidine. The discovery of a new class of sulphur containing alkaloids was considered one of the most important achievements in organic chemistry of 1962 (“Highlights from Current Literature,” Chemistry and Industry, March 30, 1963). In addition to continuing his alkaloid studies research, Achmatowicz undertook studies in the field of organic synthesis and reaction mechanisms. Specifically, the study of carbonyl cyanide, a simple compound, synthesized for the first time in 1937 by outstanding Polish organic chemist, Professor R. Malachowski, who died in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising. The team of Achmatowicz presented 15 publications on the most characteristic reactions  of this compound, carbonyl cyanide. The team established that in the case of alkenes, which have hydrogen atoms in allylic position, carbonyl cyanide reacts to “ene” synthesis. The highly unstable intermediate product splits a molecule of hydrogen cyanide, thus forming beta-gamma unsaturated ketonitriles. On the other hand, in the case of alkenes which do not contain any hydrogen atoms in the allylic position, a transformation with CO (CN) consists in addition of a carbonyl group to the ethylene system, thus forming a 1.3-epoxypropane system (co-worker M.Leplawy). It was also found that carbonyl cyanide possessed dienophylic properties (co -worker A. Zamojski). In reaction of carbonyl cyanide with chain and alicyclic alcohols and phenols (co-worker M. Leplawy) leads in good yields to cyanoformates that have their application in the synthesis of peptides. Carbonyl cyanide also reacts violently with ketens, forming dicyanopropionic beta-lactones (co-worker M. Leplawy). Studies on reactions of carbonyl cyanide by the team headed by Achmatowicz, became the stimulus to undertake research in the domain of diene synthesis with systems of analogous structure. A published series of papers resulted from research on dienophiles dimethylmesoxalate, diethyl azodicarboxylate, and a number of dienes and diene reactions (co -authors: O. Achmatowicz, junior, J. Wrobel, A. Zamojski). Monoene type test reactions were carried out from which it was deduced that diethyl azodicarboxylate may be numbered among active enopholes (co-workers: F. Werner-Zamojska, K. Belniak, A. Zwiersak, Cz. Borecki, J. Szychowski). Additionally, Professor Achmatowicz assisted his associate, J. Michalski, to develop larger scale studies on the organic chemistry of phosphorus. In the period 1945-1952 Achmatowicz was the rector of the Technical University of Łódź, whilst holding the chair of organic chemistry and continuing his research. From 1952-1953 the research of the group directed by Achmatowicz was strengthened  by incorporating the department of organic synthesis within the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1953 Achmatowicz was appointed the undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Higher Education. Shortly afterwards he organized a research team at the Warsaw University. This scientific work in Warsaw was a continuation of his researches that were carried on in Łódź. After relinquishing his position in the Ministry of Higher Education in 1960 Achmatowicz devoted himself entirely to scientific work. In 1964 Achmatowicz left Warsaw and assumed the position of the director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London. After five years, during which he  directed the institute with great success, he returned to Poland and in autumn 1969 he retired. In retirement his leisure interests were: classical music and the history of 18th-20th centuries. He was father to three children: a daughter, Emilia Kryczynska, author-translator; two sons, both organic chemist research workers: Osman, professor, director of the Chemical Institute at the Agriculture University (SGGW) in Warsaw; and Selim, head of a division of the Institute of Electronic materials Technology, in Warsaw. He died on 16 April 1988 in Warsaw and was buried in the family grave at the Moslem Cemetery there. Osman Achmatowicz