Albert Eschenmoser (1925–2023) Autobiography Chapter 2: From Postdoc to Privatdozent at ETH (1951–1960)

On the occasion of a lecture entitled, “(On) Organic Chemistry”, which I had the privilege of giving many years later at the 75th anniversary meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) at the Hilton Hotel in Basel (March 26, 1976), I had a special chairman: Vlado Prelog, Ruzicka’s successor. In his whimsically delivered introduction he remarked, among other things, “At the time, the lecturer did his doctorate at ETH under a still completely unknown young doctoral supervisor named Albert Eschenmoser.” I must admit that Prelog’s remark amused and pleased me at the time, and still does today. Not only my doctorate, but also my postdoctorate, did I carry out — so to speak — with myself, initiated and sanctioned by my powerful teacher and patron Ruzicka. He had commanded me after less than one and a half years of doctoral work in the Schinz laboratory (as a Schinz doctoral student, I was de jure Ruzicka’s doctoral student) to finish my work immediately, to submit the doctoral thesis, and to continue my work at the LOC as an independent researcher. Regarding the option of a postdoctoral position abroad, he was adamant about my doing independent research at ETH instead of working somewhere else for someone else. [...] Note: This is the opening passage of the chapter.