Background
Vincenzo Calò was born on the 6th of March 1938 in Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy; the son of Giuseppe Calò and Chiara Tatone.
Vincenzo Calò was born on the 6th of March 1938 in Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy; the son of Giuseppe Calò and Chiara Tatone.
He studied at Liceo Classico "Quinto Orazio Flacco". In 1964, he received a degree of Bachelor in Chemistry from the University of Bari. His thesis was "Nucleophilic substitution in bromonaftoli".
In 1964 Vincenzo Calò began his career as assistant of professor G. Modena and later he collaborated with professor P. E. Todesco at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bari.
In 1979 he became Full Professor of Organic Chemistry and carried out much of his research at the Department of Chemistry in Bari. From 1968 to 2010 Vincenzo Calo continuously held the courses of Organic Chemistry for Biological and Chemical Sciences of Natural Organic and Petrochemical Substances for the degree course in Chemistry, University of Bari.
Also from 1981-1983 he was the Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Bari and Director of the Department of Chemistry in the same University from 1991-1993. In the early years of his career his research activity focused on the regio- and stereo-selective reactions of carbon-carbon bond formation using organometallic reagents, with particular reference to the eco-compatible synthesis of biologically active compounds such as pheromones, fragrances and insecticides. Two representative examples are given by the synthesis of the sexual pheromone of citrus cochineal and that of the olive fly. The need to use environment-friendly chemical technologies was also pursued in the second part of his career, where he focused his interest in the use of green solvents for organic synthesis, such as ionic liquids, and towards the use of nanostructured metal catalysts (based on Pd, Pt, Cu, Au, Zn nanoparticles, etc.) useful for reactions of industrial importance (such as cross-couplings, hydrogenations, pesticide detoxifications, etc.).
He collaborated with foreign chemistry professors: professor Irina Beletskaya, Faculty of Chemistry at Moscow State University; professor Leonid M. Kustov, Head of the Laboratory of Ecological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry at M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and Professor Anna M Trzeciak, University of Wroclaw (Poland) - Faculty of Chemistry. He has been referee for magazines of the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Wiley etc.
He was a member of Italian Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry of United Kigdom and New York Accademy of Sciences.
He was married to Teresa Crudele.