Reichstein was born into a wealthyPolish-Jewish family with strong Polish patriotic traditions atWłocławek,Russian Empire (in theRussian Partition of Poland).[4] His parents were Gastawa (Brockmann) and Izydor Reichstein.[4][5] He was named after the 18th-century Polish national heroTadeusz Kościuszko.[4] He spent his early childhood atKiev, where his father was an engineer. Due to the violent pogroms occurring all over the Russian Empire in 1905, his father began to explore emigration options for the family. Tadeus began his education at boarding-school inJena,Germany and arrived inZürich,Switzerland two years later (1907) at the age of 10.[6]
In 1933, working inZürich, Switzerland, at theETHZ chemical laboratories of Ruzicka, Reichstein succeeded, independently of SirNorman Haworth and his collaborators in the United Kingdom, in synthesizingvitamin C (ascorbic acid) in what is now called theReichstein process.[7] In 1937, he was appointed Associate Professor at ETHZ.[7]
Memorial plaque at Reichstein's house inBasel, Switzerland
In 1937, Reichstein moved to theUniversity of Basel where he became Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and then, from 1946 until his retirement in 1967, of Organic Chemistry.[7]
In later years, Reichstein became interested in the phytochemistry andcytology of ferns, publishing at least 80 papers on these subjects in the last three decades of his life. He had a particular interest in the use ofchromosome number and behavior in the interpretation of histories of hybridization andpolyploidy, but also continued his earlier interest in the chemical constituents of the plants.
Reichstein died at the age of 99 inBasel, Switzerland. The principal industrial process for the artificial synthesis of vitamin C still bears his name. Reichstein was the longest-lived Nobel laureate at the time of his death, but was surpassed in 2008 byRita Levi-Montalcini.
^Sterkowicz, S. (1999). "On the hundredth birthday of the first scientist of Polish ancestry to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: Tadeusz Reichstein".Przeglad Lekarski.56 (3):245–246.PMID10442018.
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