I Am Profoundly Saddened to Communicate to the Phycotoxins Community That Ernesto Fattorusso

Ernesto Fattorusso Obituary

1937-2012

I am profoundly saddened to communicate to the HAB community that ErnestoFattorusso, professor emeritus of Organic Chemistry at the Universityof Napoli Federico II, passed away. He was a distinguished scientist appreciated not only for his enthusiasm about science, but also for his brilliant personality,extraordinary creativity,communication skills, kindness, thoughtfulness, and great humanity.Ernesto was endowed with an elegant way of approaching people, a deep humbleness in expressing his ideas, and a great enthusiasm in passing on his knowledge.This is a huge loss not only forthe Neapolitan group, but also for the entire marine natural products community.

Ernesto Fattorusso was born in 1937. He got the degree in Chemistry in 1960and became full professor of Organic Chemistry in 1975. He served two terms as dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and he has long been Director of the Department of Chemistryof Natural Products at the University of Napoli Federico II. His outstanding research activity, which is documented by more than 320papers, is impressivefor the rangeand variety of contributions he has made, many of them in a pioneeringrole. He focused his research activity on the Chemistry ofbioactive metabolites from marine organisms. Over the past two decades of his prominent carrier he has played a pivotal role in depicting the phycotoxin scenarioacross the Mediterranean Sea. Through LCMS detection and NMR-based structural elucidation he identified many toxinsbelonging to the group of okadaic acid, yessotoxins, spirolides, and lately of palytoxins, among others.

Ernesto Fattorusso was held in high regard by the whole Marine Natural Products Chemistry community. Due to his scientific achievements in the field, he received a number of prizes, the last of which beingthePaul Scheuer Award2010,awarded for the first time to an European scientist.

PatriziaPatrizia Ciminiello

Professor of Organic Chemistry

Dipartimento di Chimica delle Sostanze Naturali

Via D. Montesano 49, I-80131 Napoli, Italy.