Mordecai Rabinovitz, Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, passed away on June 3, 2019. His research interests included reactive intermediates, ring-closures and ring-expansions, buckybowls, fullerenes, and graphite intercalates. He also used magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study charged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Mordecai Rabinovitz was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, in 1933. He studied chemistry and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received M.Sc. degrees in chemistry and physics in 1958. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1961. He then performed postdoctoral research at Princeton University, NJ, USA, with Richard K. Hill.

Mordecai Rabinovitz joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1964 and was promoted to Professor in 1973. He served as Head of the Institute of Chemistry there from 1986 to 1990 and as Head of the Organic Chemistry Department from 1998 to 2000. He was a Visiting Professor at several universities in Germany, the USA, and Switzerland. He was recognized as an Honorable Member of the Israel Chemical Society (ICS) in 2017.

Selected Publications

• Mixed [2.2]Cyclophanes of Pyrene and Benzene,
  Rudolf J. Vermeij, David O. Miller, Louise N. Dawe, Ivan Aprahamian, Tuvia Sheradsky, Mordecai Rabinovitz, Graham J. Bodwell,
  Aust. J. Chem. 2010, 63, 1703–1716.
  https://doi.org/10.1071/ch10356
• Synthetic approaches to aromatic belts: building up strain in macrocyclic polyarenes,
  David Eisenberg, Roy Shenhar, Mordecai Rabinovitz,
  Chem. Soc. Rev. 2010, 39, 2879–2890.
  https://doi.org/10.1039/b904087k
• Antiaromaticity and Reactivity of a Planar Cyclooctatetraene Fully Annelated with Bicyclo[2.1.1]hexane Units,
  Tohru Nishinaga, Takayuki Uto, Ryota Inoue, Akira Matsuura, Noach Treitel, Mordecai Rabinovitz, Koichi Komatsu,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 2067–2074.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.200701405
• Bicorannulenyl: Stereochemistry of a C₄₀H₁₈ Biaryl Composed of Two Chiral Bowls,
  David Eisenberg, Alexander S. Filatov, Edward A. Jackson, Mordecai Rabinovitz, Marina A. Petrukhina, Lawrence T. Scott, Roy Shenhar,
  J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 6073–6078.
  https://doi.org/10.1021/jo800359z
• C₃₀H₁₂⁶⁻: Self-Aggregation, High Charge Density, and Pyramidalization in a Supramolecular Structure of a Supercharged Hemifullerene,
  Noach Treitel, Tuvia Sheradsky, Lingqing Peng, Lawrence T. Scott, Mordecai Rabinovitz,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 3273–3277.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200503542
• Anions and Polyanions of Oligoindenopyrenes: Modes of Electron Delocalization and Dimerization,
  Ivan Aprahamian, Hermann A. Wegner, Tamar Sternfeld, Karsten Rauch, Armin de Meijere, Tuvia Sheradsky, Lawrence T. Scott, Mordecai Rabinovitz,
  Chem. Asian J. 2006, 1, 678–685.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/asia.200600174