Closing Remarks at the Symposium in Honour of Daniel Belluš Pharmacenter, University of Basel, February 6, 2009

Abstract

In the Closing Remarks at the Symposium on 'Frontiers in Bioorganic Chemistry' (Friday, February 6, 2009, Pharmacenter, University of Basel) in honour of Daniel Belluš, his arrival in Zürich in fall 1967 and especially his postdoctoral work at the Laboratorium für Organische Chemie at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich throughout the year 1967/68 were mentioned. In his most remarkable paper (published in 1969 in Helv. Chim. Acta), the photochemistry of the ?,?-unsaturated cyclohexenones O-acetyl-testosterone and 10-methy-?1,9-octalon-(2) is described in detail. Change of solvent leads to lowering or increasing of the n,?*- and (?,?*)-triplet energies, resulting in a crossing of the two energy levels. Personal remarks on Daniel Belluš and warmest thanks to him, to Profs. Beat Ernst and Bernd Giese (the organizers of the symposium) and to all the speakers concluded this most special event.