Draft:Alexander Leonidovich Kurts

Alexander Leonidovich Kurts was born in Moscow.^[1], his father Leonid Iosifovich Kurts was a musician, fought and was wounded in the Great Patriotic War, his mother Lidia Vladimirovna Petunnikova stemmed from a noble Russian family.^{[citation needed]}

In the last school years, Alexander Kurts went to organic chemistry lectures by Alexander Nesmeyanov and took part in a chemistry After school in 1954 he became a student at the University of Chemical Technology and began to publish his first research articles. Upon graduation in 1959 he worked at the Institute for Natural Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 2 years.^{[citation needed]}

In 1961 Alexander Kurts started his postgraduate studies at the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University working on the substitution reaction mechanisms at the aromatic carbon atoms in a series of organomercury compounds, and in 1966 he defended his candidate's thesis "Electrophilic substitution at the aromatic carbon atom, mechanisms of proto- and halomercuration of aromatic organomercury compounds".^[2]. Since then he changed his research interest to the dual reactivity of ambident enolate ions, and in 1974 he defended his doctor's thesis "Reactivity of ambident enolate-ions" ^[3]

Under Kurts' leadership a convenient synthesis of some Lepidoptera pheromones was developed ^[4]

Working at Moscow State University, Kurts read his own lecture course on organic chemistry that has been accepted as a standard reference at many universities in Russia.^{[according to whom?]} Based on his lecture course, together with Oleg Reutov and Kim Butin he had written a four-volume organic chemistry textbook^[5] that has since gone through several editions.

He had overseen seven candidate of chemical sciences theses.^[relevant?]

• Kurts, A.L.; Beletskaya, I.P.; Savchenko, I.A.; Reutov, O.A. (1969). "Synthesis of unsymmetric ketones from organomercury compounds". Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. 17 (2): P21–P22. doi:10.1016/s0022-328x(00)88601-5.

• Bundel, Yu.G.; Rozenberg, V.I.; Kurts, A.L.; Antonova, N.D.; Reutov, O.A. (1969). "Abnormal acetyldemercuration of benzylmercury chloride". Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. 18 (1): 209–212. doi:10.1016/s0022-328x(00)80250-8.

• Kurts, A.L.; Macias, A.; Beletskaya, I.P.; Reutov, O.A. (1971). "Enolate ion conformations. Stereochemistry of O-alkylation of ethyl acetoacetate alkali enolates". Tetrahedron Letters. 12 (32): 3037–3040. doi:10.1016/s0040-4039(01)97085-6.

• Kurts, A.L.; Macias, A.; Beletskaya, I.P.; Reutov, O.A. (1971). "Reactivity of ambident anions—I". Tetrahedron. 27 (19): 4759–4767. doi:10.1016/s0040-4020(01)98181-5.

• Kurts, A.L.; Dem’yanov, P.I.; Beletskaya, I.P.; Reutov, O.A. (1971). "Reactivity of ambident anions—II". Tetrahedron. 27 (19): 4769–4776. doi:10.1016/s0040-4020(01)98182-7.

• Kurts, A.L.; Genkina, N.K.; Macias, A.; Beletskaya, I.P.; Reutov, O.A. (1971). "Reactivity of ambident anions". Tetrahedron. 27 (19): 4777–4785. doi:10.1016/s0040-4020(01)98183-9.

• Matveeva, E. D.; Erin, A. S.; Osetrov, A. G.; Leshcheva, I. F.; Kurts, A. L. (2006). "Chemo- and stereoselectivity of the reaction of aromatic aldehydes with triphenylphosphine and trichloroacetic acid derivatives". Russian Journal of Organic Chemistry. 42 (3): 388–392. doi:10.1134/s1070428006030080.