Obituary: In Memoriam—Oleg S. Chizhov

Abstract

DOI: 10.1255/ejms.894 ISSN 1469-0667 © IM Publications LLP 2007 Oleg Chizhov, one of the founders of the mass spectrometry of carbohydrates, died on 10 October 2007, near Moscow, aged 72. Oleg was born on 1 August 1935 in Moscow. His father, Sergei T. Chizhov, was a well-known agricultural scientist who created several pea varieties for Middle Russia. Oleg graduated from the Chemistry Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1958, where he began his scientific work in the Organic Chemistry Division under the supervision of Professor N.K. Kochetkov. His postgraduate studies were in the Institute for Chemistry of Natural Products, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bio-organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow). His PhD thesis (1961) was concerned with the structure of schizandrin, a biologicallyactive metabolite of Schizandra chinensis L (Magnoliaceae). Accomplishing this work, Chizhov was one of the first scientists in the USSR to apply spectral methods in conjunction with traditional chemical degradation. At this time, instrumental methods were recognised as promising techniques in the structure elucidation of complex organic compounds and, in particular, for presenting various biological matrices at the microgram level. Mass spectrometry being the most sensitive among other physical methods looked especially attractive and Chizhov was involved in its application to structure elucidation in the newly founded Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry directed by Professor N.K. Kochetkov (1915–2005). The main objectives of the laboratory were carbohydrate moieties in glycoprotein and proteoglycan molecules, lipopolysaccharides of bacteria and structural elements of cells in general. For efficient application of mass spectrometry in carbohydrate chemistry, the main fragmentation routes of volatile derivatives of sugars (first of all, acetates and methyl ethers) under electron ionisation conditions had to be elucidated. This undertaking was successfully accomplished by Oleg Chizhov by the middle of the sixties. The fundamental results he obtained were the basis of his Dr Sci. thesis which was defended in 1967. Nomenclature of fragment ions formed from glycosides under electron ionisation suggested by Oleg Chizhov are well-known all over the world and his review [N.K. Kochetkov and O.S. Chizhov, Adv. Carbohydr. Chem. 21, 39–93 (1966)] remains among the most cited papers on mass spectrometry of carbohydrates to this day. In 1967, Oleg Chizhov moved with Professor Kochetkov to the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of USSR, where he headed the Laboratory of Physicochemical Methods (1967–1992). One of the ways in which his activity was directed was the modification of a commercial electron ionisation mass spectrometer to operate in chemical ionisation mode (in collaboration with V.I. Kadentsev and A.A. Solov’yov). Under his leadership, fundamental investigations were performed concerning the spectrum–structure correlations (reagent gases methane, isobutane, ammonia, tetramethylsilane) for many classes of organic compounds (acetals, ketals, aldehydes, ketones, nitriles, alkyl halogenides, nitro compounds, some derivatives of carbohydrates and steroids). Obituary: in memoriam—Oleg S. Chizhov