http://www.vhca.ch/history.htm
http://www.dhs.ch/externe/protect/textes/f/F44497.html

Emile Cherbuliez (22.01.1891-28.10.1985) et les "Helvetica Chemica Acta". 

Les fondateurs des HCA furent Karl Friedrich Rudolf Fichter (1869–1952) [1],
Philippe-Auguste Guye (1862–1922) [2] et Alfred Werner (1866–1919) [3].

Fichter fut le premier président du Comité de Rédaction des HCA de 1917 à 1948.

Emile Cherbuliez succéda à Fichter en 1948 et resta président jusqu'en 1971. 

E.C.
d’une compétence et d’un dévouement inégalables ...

Emile Cherbuliez was born in Mulhouse, 
studied chemistry at the ETH in Zurich, 
where he obtained in 1917 his first Ph. D., Dr. rer. nat., 
under the direction of Prof. Auguste Piccard. 
He then moved to the University of Munich, became assistant 
to Richard Willstätter, and worked for a second Ph. D. 
under the combined leadership of Willstätter and Rudolf Pummerer. 

In 1920, he became ‘privat-dozent’ at the University of Geneva, 
and then, in 1925, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry.

Cherbuliez was in many ways a most remarkable character. 
Although handicapped by a severe leg injury, incured when 
an airplane he had piloted in his capacity of captain of the 
Swiss air force crashed in 1928, he travelled all over Israel 
at the age of 94, having visited China twice a few years earlier. 

When asked, if he did not find the long flights from Geneva to 
Beijing tiring, he answered: ‘Pas du tout! Vous savez, on peut 
s’asseoir dans l'avion’. He was completely fluent in French and 
German, and he had the uncanny ability to detect errors of fact 
or logic in any sort of manuscript, i.e. manuscripts dealing with 
organic, inorganic, physical, theoretical, or any other field of 
chemistry. He hated long sentences, and he was the personification 
of Boileau’s dictum: ‘Ce que l’on conçoit bien s’énonce clairement 
et Ies mots pour le dire arrivent aisément’. In honour of his 75th 
birthday, HCA published a ‘Festschrift’ in 1966, and the Swiss 
Chemical Society awarded him the Paracelsus Medal for his outstanding 
services as ‘Président’ of the ‘Comité de rédaction’ and as member of 
the Board of the Directors of the Society. 

Cherbuliez was assisted, among others, by Dr. A. Georg, who had obtained 
his degree from the University of Geneva, after having worked with Amé 
Pictet. It was his main duty to check the chemical nomenclature in 
accordance to the international rules and to assist Cherbuliez in reducing 
lengthy manuscripts to an acceptable size. His help was invaluable, and 
he will be gratefully remembered, even by one of the present authors who 
found all his ‘Basisorbitale’ changed into ‘basische Orbitale’. 

In 1971, Cherbuliez retired from the ‘Comité de rédaction’ at the age of 80. 
His successor was Edgardo Giovannini, professor of organic chemistry at the 
University of Fribourg, who remained ‘Président’ until 1983. Under his 
guidance, some important changes were introduced, which contributed largely 
to make HCA what it is today. One of the most crucial ones was the creation 
of a professional editorial office, consisting of an editor, an assistant 
editor, and an editorial assistant. The office, originally located in Fribourg, 
moved in 1984 to Basel where it has been housed in one of the quaint old 
quarters of the city. Another important innovation concerned the admission 
of English as a fourth language, with the result that nowadays more than 80% 
of the contributions are published in English, their percentage still increasing. 

This, together with the decision to accept manuscripts from outside Switzerland, 
lifted HCA to the rank of an international journal. 

[1] Fritz Fichter (by H. Erlenmeyer), Helv. Chim. Acta 1953, 36, 753. 
[2] Philippe-Auguste Guye (by E. Briner), Helv. Chim. Acta 1922, 5, 411. 
[3] Alfred Werner (by P. Karrer), Helv. Chim. Acta 1920, 3, 196. 
[4] Maurice Cérésole (by H. Detraz), Helv. Chim. Acta 1937, 20, 999. 
[5] Volkmar Kohlschütter (by W. Feitknecht), Helv. Chim. Acta 1939, 22, 1059. 
[6] Emil Bosshard (by H. E. Fierz-David), Helv. Chim. Acta 1937, 20, 1335.
[7] Hans Rupe (by H. Dahn and T. Reichstein), Helv. Chim. Acta 1952, 35, 1.

[8] Amé Pictet (by E. Cherbuliez), Helv. Chim. Acta 1937, 20, 828.

[9] Helv. Chim. Acta 1943, 26, Contents to Fasc. V.
[10] P. Karrer, H. Salomon, Helv. Chim. Acta 1933, 16, 643.
[11] V. Grignard, Helv. Chim. Acta 1930, 13, 401.
[12] H. Rupe, R. Zweidler, Helv. Chim. Acta 1940, 23, 1026 (footnote 1).
[13] Frédéric Reverdin (by A. Pictet), Helv. Chim. Acta 1931, 14, 1046.

[14] Emile Cherbuliez (by E. Giovannini), Helv. Chim. Acta 1986, 69, 1.

[15] H. Erlenmeyer, Helv. Chim. Acta 1930, 13, 1006.
[16] W. J. Richter, F. Raschdorf, J. v. Euw, T. Reichstein, 
C.-J. Widén, Helv. Chim. Acta 1987, 70, 881; A. Lardon, T. Reichstein, Helv. Chim. Acta 1987, 70, 894.
[17] A. Wettstein, Helv. Chim. Acta 1967, 50, 1–2.


Jubilé de Monsieur le professeur Amé Pictet (26.11.1927)
http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N090566
(Amé Pictet 12.08.1857-11.03.1937)

Cette page est en préparation... mes excuses !

http://www.ordiecole.com/cherbuliez_emile.txt