István T. Horváth

István Horváth
Born	István T. Horváth (1953-08-06)August 6, 1953 Budapest, Hungary
Died	March 7, 2022(2022-03-07) (aged 68)
Nationality	Hungarian-American
Known for	Fluorous biphase catalysis, in situ spectroscopy
Awards	Fluorous Technology Award (2005) Senior Humboldt Research Award (2006) Green Chemistry Lecture Award (2008)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemist
Institutions	City University of Hong Kong
Website	www.hit-team.net

István T. Horváth (6 August 1953 – 7 March 2022)[1] was a Hungarian American chemist, working on greener and more sustainable chemistry since its inception.[2][3] In particular, he focuses on homogeneous transition metal catalysis and in situ spectroscopy. He was highly involved and very influential in the now enormous field of fluorous solvents and technologies.[4][5][6]

Education

Horváth obtained his Diploma in Chemical Engineering (1977) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1979) at Veszprem University in Hungary.

Career

Following his PhD, Horváth went on to spend time at Yale University as a Postdoctoral research associate (1982–1984), and as a Scientific Co-worker at ETH Zurich (1984–1987). This was followed by a stint at ExxonMobil Corporate Research, Anandale, New Jersey (1987–1998). He re-entered academia at the Institute of Chemistry in Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (1999–2009), and then became a Chair Professor of Chemistry and the Head of the Department of Biology and Chemistry at the City University of Hong Kong.[7]

Research

As of 2015^[update] his research lies in the conversion of biomass into platform chemicals, and the development of more sustainable fluorous solvent-based processes. He proposed that gamma-Valerolactone (GVL) exhibits the most important characteristics of a sustainable liquid and it can be used for the production of both energy and carbon-based consumer products.[8] It was confirmed by isotope labeling that fructose can be converted to hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) then to levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA) and finally to GVL in GVL as the solvent.[9] He is also the editor of numerous books and other peer-reviewed publications in the fields of catalysis,[10][11] green chemistry, and fluorous technologies.[12][13]

Awards and honours

Horváth was made an Honorary Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti Modena in 2010.[14]

He was elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2014.[15]

References

1. "In memory of Prof. István T. Horváth (1953-2022) | Department of Chemistry".
2. Horváth, I. T. (1995). "Introduction: Chemists Should Be Aware of the Environmental Implication of Their Chemistry". Chem. Rev. 95 (1): 1. doi:10.1021/cr00033a600.
3. Tuck, C. O.; Pérez, E; Horváth, I. T.; Sheldon, R. A.; Poliakoff, M (2012). "Valorization of biomass: Deriving more value from waste". Science. 337 (6095). New York: 695–9. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..695T. doi:10.1126/science.1218930. PMID 22879509. S2CID 715234.
4. Horváth, I. T.; Rábai, R. (1994). "Facile Catalyst Separation Without Water: Fluorous Biphase Hydroformylation of Olefins". Science. 266 (5182): 72–75. Bibcode:1994Sci...266...72H. doi:10.1126/science.266.5182.72. PMID 17814001. S2CID 220107917.
5. Horváth, I. T. (1998). "Fluorous Biphase Chemistry". Acc. Chem. Res. 31 (10): 641–650. doi:10.1021/ar970342i.
6. István T. Horváth publications indexed by Google Scholar
7. "Prof. István T. HORVÁTH". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
8. Horváth, I. T.; Mehdi, H.; Fábos, V.; Boda, L.; Mika, L. T. (2008). "γ-Valerolactone—a sustainable liquid for energy and carbon-based chemicals". Green Chemistry. 10 (2): 238. doi:10.1039/b712863k.
9. Qi, L.; Horváth, I. T. (2012). "Catalytic Conversion of Fructose to γ-Valerolactone in γ-Valerolactone". ACS Catalysis. 2 (11): 2247–2249. doi:10.1021/cs300428f.
10. I. T. Horváth (Ed.) "Encyclopedia of Catalysis", Wiley–VCH, Weinheim, 2002. ISBN 978-0-471-24183-6.
11. B. Cornils, W. A. Herrmann, I. T. Horváth, W. Leitner, S. Mecking, H. Olivier-Bourbigou, D. Vogt (Eds.) "Multiphase Homogeneous Catalysis", Wiley–VCH, Weinheim, 2005. ISBN 978-3-527-30721-0.
12. J. A. Gladysz, D. P. Curran, I. T. Horváth (Eds.) "Handbook of Fluorous Chemistry", Wiley–VCH, Weinheim, 2004. ISBN 978-3-527-30617-6.
13. I. T. Horváth (Eds.) "Fluorous Chemistry", Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2012. ISBN 978-3-642-25233-4.
14. "Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti Modena". Archived from the original on 2017-07-07. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
15. American Chemical Society list of fellows