Leonidas Zervas
[1][2][3][4] Together with his mentor Max Bergmann they laid the foundations for the field in 1932 with their major discovery, the Bergmann-Zervas carboxybenzoxy oligopeptide synthesis which remained unsurpassed in utility for the next two decades.
[1] Throughout his life Zervas also served in many important posts, including President of the Academy of Athens or briefly Minister of Industry of Greece.
[2][4] He received numerous awards and honours during his life and posthumously, such as Foreign Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences or the first Max Bergmann golden medal.
[3] He was immediately appointed full Professor of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in recognition of his distinguished international work.
[2] Concurrent to research, Zervas taught organic chemistry, oversaw the laboratory and guided many generations of young chemists as doctoral advisor for the 29 years he held the post at the University of Athens.
[1][2] During the Axis occupation of Greece Zervas played an active part in the Greek Resistance as a member of EDES; he was imprisoned twice, first by the Italian and then by the German occupying forces, and his laboratory was destroyed.
[2] In the following years, guided by a sense of personal and professional duty, Zervas voluntarily took on a variety of responsibilities within the Greek state.
[1] They achieved this using the carboxybenzyl amine protecting group for the masking of the N-terminus of the growing oligopeptide chain to which amino acid residues are added in a serial manner.
[6] The discovery of the Bergmann-Zervas synthesis has been characterised as "epoch-making"[1] as it allowed the advent of controlled synthetic peptide chemistry, completing the work started in the early 20th century by Bergmann's mentor Emil Fischer.
Previously impossible to synthesise oligopeptides with a highly specific sequence and reactive side chains were consequently produced in the 1930s by Bergmann and Zervas.
[1][2] In his attempts he introduced new mercaptan protecting groups (e.g. trityl, benzhydryl or benzoyl), which finally made it possible to produce disulfide bridges in a controlled manner.
[2] In the same year Zervas was made Foreign Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, an indication of the great respect for his work in the Eastern Block, too.
[8] The award is given to the "scientist who has made the most outstanding contributions to the chemistry, biochemistry and/or biology of peptides in the five years preceding the date of selection".
