Vladimir Prelog

Who was Vladimir Prelog?

Vladimir Prelog (23 July 1906 – 7 January 1998) was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born, and spent his infancy, in Sarajevo, and youth in Zagreb, Osijek and Prague. Prelog was born in Sarajevo, Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at that time within Austria-Hungary, to Croat parents who were working there. His father, Milan, a native of Zagreb, was a history professor at a gymnasium in Sarajevo and later at the University of Zagreb. Prelog started elementary school in Sarajevo. In Zagreb he graduated from elementary school and, from 1916 to 1919, attended gymnasium there. From 1919 to 1921 his father got a job in Osijek, so family moved there, and Prelog spent those two years attending Osijek gymnasium. He later lived and worked in Prague, Zagreb and Zürich.

As an 8-year-old boy, he stood near the place where the assassination of Franz Ferdinand occurred.

Historical significance

In 1915, at the beginning of the first World War, at 9 Prelog moved to Zagreb (then part of Austria-Hungary) with his parents.