Background

Duilio Arigoni was born on December 6, 1928, in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland, Ticino, Switzerland. He was the son of Bernardino and Emma (Bernasconi) Arigoni.

Education

Duilio Arigoni completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in 1951. In 1955 got a Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry and stayed in his Alma Mater as an assistant, later becoming a professor.

Career

Duilio Arigoni has worked on the biosynthetic pathways of many organic natural substances. His doctoral thesis was "Über konfigurative Beziehungen Steroidund Terpenverbindungen". He was also a visiting professor at Harvard University and Cambridge University.

Duilio Arigoni has worked as a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich for over fifty years.

Achievements

• Duilio Arigoni is known for his research in bio-organic stereochemistry. His major contributions are in the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and in the biosynthesis of terpenes, alkaloids, and enzyme cofactors.
  
  He has explored the detailed stereochemical pathways by which enzymes convert their substrates into products. His strategy of penetrating into the structure of enzyme-substrate interactions by concentrating on the detailed stereochemical fate of isotopic substrate labels led him to make basic contributions to the mechanism of enzymic reactions requiring coenzyme B12, one of the "pigments of life".

Membership

• 

  foreign member of the Royal Society

  the Royal Society , United Kingdom

  1991

• 

  Honorary member

  French Chemical Society , France

• 

  Honorary member

  Italian Chemical Society , Italy

• 

  Honorary member

  Swiss Chemical Society , Switzerland

• foreign associate

  National Academy of Sciences Washington , United States

• 

  European Academy of Sciences , Belgium

• 

  Member of Board of Governors

  Weizmann Institute of Science , Israel

  1979

Connections

Duilio Arigoni married Carla Diener (deceased 1998). Children: Coralia, Fabrizio, Michele.

Father:

Bernardino Arigoni

Mother:

Emma (Bernasconi) Arigoni

Spouse:

Carla Diener

child:

Fabrizio Arigoni

child:

Coralia Arigoni

child:

Michele Arigoni