Ivan Horbachevsky

Ivan Yakovych Horbachevsky, also known as Jan Horbaczewski, Johann Horbaczewski or Ivan Horbaczewski, was a Ukrainian chemist and politician of Austrian citizenship.

Biography

Ivan Horbachevsky was born on 15 May 1854 in the village of Zarubyntsi, now Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine in the family of a Ukrainian [Greek Catholic Church] priest, parson of Zbarazh, Fr Yakov Horbachevsky of the Korczak family.
He graduated from the First Ternopil Classical Gymnasium, where he became one of the first members of the "Hromada" circle, founded by a 6th grade student Ivan Pului in January 1863.
From 1872 to 1878 he studied medicine at the University of Vienna, Austria. In 1883, he was appointed extraordinary professor and, in 1884, ordinary professor at the University of Prague by the Francis [Joseph I of Austria|Emperor], 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 from glycine in 1882. He also noticed that amino acids were building blocks of proteins. Horbachevsky worked in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary (1920–46)|Hungary] 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.