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J . Chem. Inf Comput. Sci. 1990, 30, 350
Dr. George E. Vladutz, a highly respected member of the chemical information community, passed away on September 3, 1990. A native of Romania, George started his studies in chemistry at the Bucharest Polytechnical Institute and in 1952 received an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Leningrad Technological Institute. In 1956, he received a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the MendelEev Institute for Chemical Technology in Moscow. This was followed in 1967 with a DSc. in Chemical Information Science from the Institute for Organic Chemistry of the Elements, also in Moscow. As early as the fifties, during his long career (1958-1974) at VINITI, Dr. Vladutz began to provide practical uses for the computer in the storage and retrieval of information concerning chemical reactions. I n his 1963 publication “Concerning One System of Classification and Coding Chemical Reactions”, he formulated the ideas which are the basis of today’s methods for the indexing and computerized retrieval of organic chemical reactions. His was the earliest suggestion that reaction analysis could be done automatically, and he was apparently the first to describe the concept of a reaction site. He was also the first to formulate and illustrate the principals which allow a computer, using a library of rcaction types, to proceed backwards from a target compound in order to generate possible routes for its synthesis. This latter work was published 6 years prior to that of Corey and Wipke and at a time when computerized methods for searching chemical compounds-something that is taken for granted today-was in its very early stages of development. In 1975, Dr. Vladutz emigrated from Russia and became a Visiting Lecturer at the Postgraduate School for Librarianship and Information Science at the University of Sheffield i n England. The following year, he joined the Institute for Scientific information in Philadelphia where he eventually
became Manager of Basic Research. In this position, he continued his work on reaction retrieval methods and in recent years was also involved in the development of new, associative methods of information retrieval through the application of citation-based techniques of bibliographic coupling. George’s international reputation for practical insight into thc nature of the most difficult chemical information problems, combined with his ability and willingness to solve them, made him a “natural resource” for all scholars and practitioners of chemical information science. He was frequently a speaker at scientific meetings around the world and his more than 100 published papers made a solid contribution to the knowledge base of our profession. But George has left a gift even greater than the cumulative wisdom of an outstanding research career. For those of us who worked closely with him, he taught us to truly enjoy not only the pursuit of knowledge-but life itself. He approached every aspect of work and life with child-like innocence and enthusiasm. He could make a walk in the garden fun-despite a deluge of rain-because of his joy in the beauty of flowers. He could enjoy amusement parks and walks on the beach with the same intensity with which he enjoyed unraveling scientific problems. He was a teacher, he was a friend, and we loved him. Because of his work, today’s chemists reap the benefit of computerized reaction analysis and retrieval. If structures represent the language of chemistry, then reactions must be its prose, and Dr. George Vladutz is one of the greatest contributors to the widespread enjoyment and use of the chemical literature.
0095-2338/90/ 1630-0350%02.50/0 0 1990 American Chemical Society
Bonnie Lawlor C I N F Past Chairman, 1990
