Reutov, Oleg

Born Sept. 5, 1920, in Makeevka, Donetsk Oblast. Soviet chemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1964; corresponding member, 1958). Member of the CPSU from 1942.

Reutov graduated from Moscow State University in 1941, and in 1945 he became a research worker in the university’s department of chemistry. In 1957 he was appointed head of the laboratory he established at the university dealing with theoretical problems in organic chemistry. In the same year he also became head of the laboratory of isotope application in organic chemistry at the Institute of Heteroorganic Compounds of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1969, Reutov became the USSR expert at the United Nations on chemical and biological warfare. In 1974, he served as deputy chairman of the Soviet Committee for the Protection of Peace.

Reutov’s main works have been devoted to physical organic chemistry, the study of the mechanism of electrophilic substitution reactions (δ_E-reactions), molecular rearrangements, and the chemistry of carbonium ions. His works have also dealt with the ylides of arsenic and sulfur, onium compounds, dual reactivity of ambident (mesomeric) anions, the participation of ions and ion pairs in organic reactions, the acidity of CH-acids, stereochemistry, and the hydroxymercuration mechanism. Reutov formulated a theory for electrophilic substitution at the saturated carbon atom in a number of organometallic compounds. He has been awarded four orders and several medals.