Phosgenations

Livius Cotarca was born in Romania (1951) where he received his M .Sc. and PhD degrees in Industrial Organic Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Timisoara. He holds also a M. Sc. Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Milan Polytechnic University (Italy). He was successively Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at Timisoara and Senior Chemist at Caffaro-Sinia, Italy. In 1999 he joined the Zamban Group where he is now Manager of Research and Industrial Development. Dr. Cotarca is a recipient of the Nicolae Teclu Award for Chemistry of Romanian Academy and is a member of the American Chemical Society. He is author of numerous patents and publications and co-author of two books. Currently, his scientific interest is devoted to the process chemistry of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Heiner Eckert was born in Munich, Germany, where he gained his diploma in Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 1973, going on to receive his PhD with summa cum laude under Professor I. Ugi three years later. In 1977, he founded Dr. Eckert GmbH, a company specializing in developing fine chemicals and processes for chemicals production, particularly in the field of phosgenation reactions. At present he is working as an Academic Director at the TUM, with his research focused on new methods in organic syntheses development. Dr. Eckert has published numerous scientific publications and patents, and indeed the Eckert hydrogenation catalysts are named for him.