About Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry
Brief history and modern trends

Foundation - Directors - Evolved organizations - Prominent scientists
ZIOC today - Achievements - Fundamental results - Synthesis - Catalysis
Industrial Applications - Information technologies - Editorial offices - Conferences

Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry (ZIOC) of the Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the worldth largest scientific centers in the fields of organic chemistry, organic catalysis, and chemistry of biologically active compounds. The Institute was founded on February 23, 1934, according to the Decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was a period when Academy of Sciences was being moved from Leningrad to Moscow. This fact predetermined the specific nature of the Institute as an organisation that was established by joining up of the representatives of the leading scientific schools of this country. The flower of Russian organic chemistry was presented in the newly founded Institute. It is enough to mention laboratories headed by Academicians A. E. Favorsky, N. D. Zelinsky and his former students, as well as by representatives of scientific schools of Academicians V. N. Ipatiev and A. E. Chichibabin. Groups headed by Academician N. Ya. Demianov, Academicians Emeritus M. A. Il'insky, and N. M. Kizhner were also among the first laboratories of the ZIOC.

Enormous contribution to the development of the ZIOC was made by its Directors. The first of them was Academician A. E. Favorsky, who was succeeded by Academician A. N. Nesmeyanov in 1939. In following years the Institute was headed by Academicians B. A. Kazansky (1953—1966), N. K. Kochetkov (1966—1988). Since 1988 the Director of the Institute is Academician V. A. Tartakovsky. In 1953, the Institute was named after N. D. Zelinsky. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Institute and for great achievements in the development of organic chemistry and in training of scientists ZIOC was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

The success of the Institute helped new scientific fields and organizations to evolve. Several laboratories of the ZIOC separated to form in 1954 the Institute of Organoelement Compounds and the Institute of High Pressure Physics, and in 1959 the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Compounds (now — Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry). Several other research institutes of the former Soviet Union were established with support of scientists working at ZIOC. Among these are Irkutsk Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the RAS, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus', Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Tadzhikistan, Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. Invaluable contribution was made by the Institute to schooling of scientists of higher qualification for Russia, other republics of former Soviet Union, which are now sovereign states, and for foreign countries.

Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry is well-known throughout the world for prominent scientists, who have been working in the Institute. Among them are Academicians A. E. Favorsky, N. D. Zelinsky, A. A. Balandin, B. A. Kazansky, A. N. Nesmeyanov, I. N. Nazarov, I. L. Knunyants, A. E. Porai-Koshits, V. V. Korshak, L. F. Vereshchagin, M. M. Shemyakin, M. I. Kabachnik and many others. Scientific Prizes named after Academicians N. D. Zelinsky and A. A. Balandin were founded by the Academy of Sciences to award outstanding investigations in the fields of organic chemistry, petrochemistry and organic catalysis.

Today the Institute accumulates highly qualified scientists well known in the country and abroad. More than 600 researchers are employed in the Institute, of which five are Academicians and six Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences; their fruitful activities were awarded by Orders and Scientific Prizes. Among people now employed in the Institute there are 24 prize-winners of Lenin, State, Demidov, and several Nominal Prizes of the Academy of Sciences.

Leading scientists of the ZIOC are Members of foreign Academies and Scientific Societies, Scientific Councils of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministries and Departments, work actively in Editorial Boards of Russian and International journals, etc. During past years, research fellows of the Institute have published thousands of scientific papers and lectures, 125 monographs and collections of papers, more than 10 textbooks and methodic guides, many of which were published in several editions and translated into foreign languages; they are also authors of hundreds of inventions.

Several fundamental achievements were made at the Institute. A new physical phenomenon, resonance Raman scattering of light, was discovered; substantial contribution to the problem of double bonding at silicon and germanium atoms was made. Methods of study of structure and reactivity of organic compounds under ordinary and extreme conditions were developed and are successfully used. These include reactions at superhigh pressures, low-temperature stabilization and study of unstable species (carbenes, free radicals) in inert matrices, methods of phase-transfer catalysis, electrochemical processes. Universally recognized are advances of the Institute in such fields as chemistry of unsaturated compounds, carbenes, small cycles, nitro compounds, diazo compounds, heterocycles (especially comprising nitrogen and sulfur), organoboranes, and research of homolytic reactions.

Extensive studies of the structure of microbial and virus carbohydrate-containing biopolymers that were accomplished at ZIOC have led for the first time to the synthesis of artificial antigens comprising complex oligo- and polysaccharides, thus opening a fundamentally new approach for the preparation of vaccines and sera. Original research on steroid synthesis resulted in development of the first home-produced hormone preparations with separated biological functions.

Fundamental studies in the field of theory of organic catalysis were performed at the Institute. Also studied were elementary acts of several catalytic reactions, structure and physics of the catalyst surface (quantum chemistry approaches and modern instrumental methods were used in combination). Priority studies in such areas as catalytic transformations of hydrocarbons, syntheses using carbon monoxide and other one-carbon molecules, synthesis of bulk and fine chemicals, as well as asymmetric catalysis, were accomplished. Scientific principles for the preparation of new zeolite catalysts were formulated. Kinetic, physical and mathematical models of industrial processes and devices were designed.

Many developments of the Institute are implemented in industry of basic organic synthesis, oil-refining industry, pharmaceutical industry, and industry of plant protection agents. Collaboration of scientists of the Institute with the Special Design Bureau of the ZIOC that existed for 35 years played a great role in the development of scientific instrumentation in our country, especially in desing and manufacture of chromatographs.

During recent years, mathematical chemistry and computer synthesis have been successfully developed. Modern information technologies are now widely used at the Institute. The Institute is a host for international centers of networks EARN/BITNET, FREEnet, and National United Networks Coordination Center. The Institute also accommodates Moscow Information Center of the RAS — STN International, NMR Research Center of the RAS, Higher Chemical College of the RAS, and Scientific and Education Center of ZIOC and Moscow Chemical Lyceum.

Editorial offices of several leading Russian chemical journals ("Russian Chemical Bulletin", "Russian Chemical Reviews", "Kinetics and Catalysis", and "Mendeleev Communications" published jointly with the Royal Society of Chemistry, Great Britain) reside at the Institute; many researchers of the Institute are involved in their work.

The Institute traditionally organizes conferences on carbene chemistry, syntheses using one-carbon molecules, heterocyclic chemistry, catalysis and mechanisms of catalytic reactions, as well as scientific school on organic synthesis.