Heinz Falk (born April 29, 1939, in Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria) is professor emeritus for organic chemistry at Johannes Kepler University of Linz and editor of "Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Compounds". His research is focused on structural analysis, synthesis, stereochemistry and photochemistry of plant and animal photosensitizing and photosensory pigments, such as hypericin.
Biography
Early life Heinz Falk was born April 29, 1939, in Sankt Pölten, Austria, went to elementary school in Statzendorf and completed middle school in Krems an der Donau. After moving to Vienna in 1953 he completed a three-year program at HBLVA for Chemical Industry, Rosensteingasse and completed his high-school diploma in 1959 through classes at an evening school, where he met his future wife, Rotraud Falk (née Strohbach).
Marriage and children Heinz Falk is married to Rotraud Falk since 1966 and they have one son:
Alexander Falk (August 13, 1967) is the CEO of Altova.
Education Heinz Falk studied chemistry at the University of Vienna starting in 1959 and completed his dissertation under his doctoral advisor, Karl Schlögl, in 1966. In 1971 Falk spent a year abroad to study at ETH Zürich. Upon his return to Vienna in 1972 he attained habilitation for organic chemistry at the University of Vienna.
Career 1966-1979: University of Vienna Starting in 1966 Falk was an assistant at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna. In 1975 he was promoted to associate professor of physical organic chemistry at the University of Vienna. In the summer of 1978 Falk was invited to speak at the Gordon Research Conference in Wolfeboro. 1979–present: Johannes Kepler University of Linz In 1979 Falk received a call to become full professor of organic chemistry at Johannes Kepler University of Linz, where he founded the new Institute of Organic Chemistry. From 1989 through 1991 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (TNF) at Johannes Kepler University of Linz. In 2005 Falk was ranked #3 among the "Top 10" scientists in Upper Austria by the newspaper "OÖ Nachrichten". In 2008 he retired as Professor emeritus at the Institute of Organic chemistry of the JKU.
Research interests Falk's main research area is the structural analysis, synthesis, stereochemistry and photochemistry of plant and animal photosensitizing and photosensory pigments. The main group of compounds covered in his work are pigments derived from the fundamental phenanthro[1,10,9,8-opqra]perylene-7,14-dione chromophore with natural pigments like hypericin, stentorin, the fringelites, the gymnochromes, and blepharismin. In addition, he is focusing on hemin-analogous corrphycene derivatives (e.g. as potential blood substitutes and heme oxygenase blocker) as well as on other natural compounds such as the natural sun blocker urocanic acid. Furthermore, research on applied problems of industrial relevance, like oxidation, ozonization, non natural amino acids and catalysis have been pursued.
Published works
Books Falk, Heinz (1978). Ausgewählte Übungsbeispiele Zur Nomenklatur Organischer Verbindungen. Wien, New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-81479-7. Falk, Heinz (1989). The Chemistry of Linear Oligopyrroles and Bile Pigments. Wien, New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-82112-2. Falk, Heinz (2026). The Diels–Alder Reaction as a Key Step in Natural Product Synthesis. Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products. Vol. 130. Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-032-09900-6.
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