Eschenmoser Collection at the Information Center

In July 2023, Prof. Albert Eschenmoser, who shaped the organic chemistry of the 20th century like no other, died at the age of 98. In 2017, he donated his most important books to the Information Center.

Prof. Albert Eschenmoser was born in Erstfeld, Uri, on August 5, 1925, and studied at the Department of Chemistry at ETH Zurich from 1944 to 1949. In 1951, he received his doctorate from Nobel Prize winner Leopold Ružička in Hans Schinz’s group for his work on acid-catalyzed cyclizations in mono- and sesquiterpene compounds. In 1956, Eschenmoser became a Privatdozent in organic chemistry, in 1960 he was promoted to associate professor, and in 1967 he received a full professorship. After his retirement in 1992, Eschenmoser continued his research with groups of postdoctoral fellows: At ETH Zurich until 2000, at the Biozentrum of the University of Frankfurt am Main from 1993 to 1996, and at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, from 1996 to 2009.

As early as January 2017, when he was 91 years old, he approached the Head of the Chemistry | Biology | Pharmacy Information Center with questions about donating his private library. The offer to place important books from his collection in the Information Center to make them available to the public pleased him very much, and he wrote: “That you might create an “Eschenmoser shelf” pleases me (potentially) as much as the announcement of an “Eschenmoser Lecture” by the LOC last year. I will make a sincere effort to identify the most interesting of the science-related books in my library and include them in such a shelf”.

Since the fall of 2017, this Eschenmoser Library has been located on the H floor near the sofa lounge. On shelves 749 to 750, you will find selected books from Albert Eschenmoser’s private library that were important foundations for his research and are still relevant today.

Now in our online catalog, a new button "Collections" has recently been added under "Other Areas". One click takes you to the Eschenmoser Collection (more collections will follow) and displays the 223 books selected by Albert Eschenmoser, including the list of his scientific publications. The books are sorted by year, the newest from 2013, the oldest from 1933.