Ivan Yakovych Horbachevsky (; 15 May 1854 – 24 May 1942), also known as Jan Horbaczewski, Johann Horbaczewski or Ivan Horbaczewski, was an Austrian chemist and politician of Ukrainian origin.

Biography

Ivan Horbachevsky was born on 15 May 1854 in the village of Zarubyntsi, now

Ternopil Oblast Ternopil Oblast (), also referred to as Ternopilshchyna () or Ternopillia (), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its Capital (political), administrative center is Ternopil, through which flows the Seret (river), Seret, a tribu ...

, Ukraine (then the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in Eastern Europe. The Cr ...

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

) in the family of a

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a Major archiepiscopal church, major archiepiscopal ''sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Cathol ...

priest, parson of Zbarazh, Fr Yakov Horbachevsky (1817 – July 14, 1875, Zbarazh) of the Korczak family.''Гонський Я.'
Іван Горбачевський у спогадах і листуваннях (нарис)
. — Тернопіль : Укрмедкнига, 2004. — p. 138. He graduated from the First Ternopil Classical Gymnasium, where he became one of the first members of the "

Hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

" circle, founded by a 6th grade student Ivan Pului in January 1863. From 1872 to 1878 he studied medicine at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, Austria. In 1883, he was appointed extraordinary professor and, in 1884, ordinary professor at the University of Prague by the

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

, and was the rector of the same university for a time. He is particularly known for his contributions in organic chemistry and biochemistry. He was the first to synthesise

uric acid Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the Chemical formula, formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates, such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is a product of the meta ...

from

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid. Glycine is one of the proteinogenic amino acids. It is encoded by all the codons starting with GG (G ...

in 1882. He also noticed that

amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the Proteinogenic amino acid, 22 α-amino acids incorporated into p ...

were building blocks of

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, re ...

. Horbachevsky worked in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and Ukraine. It was as though the Dual Monarchy was responding to the Spanish flu when, on 30 July 1918, Imperial Councillor Ivan Horbachevsky was appointed by imperial decree the empire’s first health minister.

References

External links

Biography on UNESCO portal
* Выдающиеся химики мира: Биогр.справочник/В. Волков, Е. Вонский, Г. Кузнецова. -М.,1991. * Віталій Абліцов «Галактика «Україна». Українська діаспора: видатні постаті» – К.: КИТ, 2007. - 436 с. Ivan Horbaczewski Commemorative Plaque in Vienna

Ivan Horbaczewski Commemorative Plaque in Vienna

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horbachevsky, Ivan 1854 births 1942 deaths People from Ternopil Oblast Scientists from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Politicians from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians 19th-century Ukrainian scientists 20th-century Ukrainian people 19th-century Austrian chemists 20th-century Austrian chemists Ukrainian chemists Ukrainian biochemists Gout researchers Chemists from Austria-Hungary Czechoslovak chemists Full Members of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Health ministers of Austria