Журнал "Макрогетероциклы"

This year, 2021, on August 17th, students and staff of the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Ivanovo State University of Chemical Technology (ISUCT) congratulated Olga Grigoryevna Khelevina with her 80th anniversary! Olga Grigorievna looks great, she is full of vitality and new ideas! Is it possible to believe that this wonderful woman has reached such an age?!

The entire carrier of Olga Grigorievna’s was connected with the Ivanovo Chemical Engineering Institute, where she deservedly occupies an honorable place in the glorious galaxy of chemists and teachers. The beginning was laid in 1963, when Olga Grigorievna, a young first-year student, began her study at the Department of Chemical Fiber Technology – at that time it was one of the most prestigious departments of the university. The first scientific works carried out under the supervision of Prof. Nikolai Petrovich Kanyaev were devoted to the sulfation of esters of higher carboxylic acids, and the results obtained not only proved her excellent skills as young scientist, but also formed the basis of the production technology for the synthesis of surfactants. Based on the results of these studies, in 1969 Olga Grigorievna defended her PhD thesis “Formation and surface-active properties of some sulfated oleic acid esters”. However, Olga Grigorievna received recognition in the scientific world as a specialist in the field of synthesis and physico-chemical properties of tetraazaporphyrins. It was Prof. Boris Dmitrievich Berezin, the head of the Department of Organic Chemistry since 1973, who “just by drawing a tetraazaporphine molecule on a piece of paper” suggested to Olga Grigoryevna to start the research of this, at that time practically unexplored class of macroheterocycles.

The result of this fruitful work was successfully presented in 1990 as the habilitation dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Chemical Sciences on the topic “Coordination chemistry of azaporphyrins in non-aqueous media”. Soon after that, Olga Grigorievna received the academic title of professor and from 1992 to 2020 was a professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry. Also, she was engaged in many other activities. For many years she was the scientific secretary and the deputy chairman of the Dissertation Council of ISUCT, deputy chairman of the expert commission, a member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Organic Faculty of ISUCT, Chairman of the D.I. Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society at ISUCT, deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian Chemical Journal.

Olga Grigorievna was the leader of the research group including staff, postgraduates and students of the Ivanovo State University of Chemical Technology and the Institute of Solution Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For many years, her scientific group studied the effect of azasubstitution in aromatic porphyrin-type macrocyclic complexes on their structure, physicochemical properties and reactivity.^[1,2] The relationship between the structure of the reaction center and the coordinating ability of azaporphyrin macroheterocycles was established, and that was quite important for development of practical applications of azaporphyrin complexes.^[3–6] The new developed methods for the synthesis of azaporphyrins, their metal complexes and new materials based on them are protected by a number of patents (author’s certificates).^[7–10] Based on detailed studies of the reactivity of tetraazaporphyrins in electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution reactions, a series of new macrocyclic compounds have been synthesized.^[11,12] It is important to mention the works of Olga Grigorievna in the field of history of science,^[13,14] in which the authors traced the time stages of establishing the structure of chlorophyll – one of the most important biological molecules on Earth, the natural ancestor of tetrapyrrole macroheterocycles, which include tetraazaporphyrins (porphyrazines), as well as the history of the Department of Organic Chemistry, starting with the Ivanovo-Voznesensky Polytechnic Institute (1918) and up to the Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology of our days. In the modern world, the circle of interests of researchers cannot be limited only to the synthesis of new compounds, it is important to search the areas for their practical application. In recent years, Olga Grigorievna has been actively engaged in studying the applied properties of tetraazaporphyrins. She has shown the possibility of their use as catalysts for structuring siloxane rubbers,^[15–27]which in turn can be used as coatings of fire-resistant protective materials. In collaboration with a group of Prof. Stultz from the UK it was found that the Mg(II) complex of monobromosubstituted tetrazaporphyrin associated with deoxyuridine is embedded in DNA helices, forming ensembles, and this system can be used to label repeating links with various adenosines.^[28,29]

Olga Grigorievna Khelevina has more than 180 scientific articles, she is a coauthor of 7 chapters in the monographs, 8 reviews and 16 patents.

Olga Grigorievna’s great merit is the education of students. Under her supervision 9 postgraduate students have received the degree Candidate of Chemical Sciences (PhD): P.A. Stuzhin, A.V. Glazunov, G.M. Trofimenko, N.V. Chizhova, O.A. Petrov, S.V. Timofeeva, S.V. Rumyantseva, Yu.V. Romanenko, A.S. Malyasova, two of whom (O.A. Petrov and P.A. Stuzhin) subsequently became Doctors of Chemical Sciences.

Olga Grigorievna Khelevina’s achievements in scientific and public work are appreciated. In 1988 she was awarded the medal “Veteran of Labor”, she also received the honorary titles “Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education” (2001), “Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation” (2006).