Ivan Gorbachevskyi

Ivan Yakovych Horbachevsky also known as Jan Horbaczewski, Johann Horbaczewski or Ivan Horbaczewski, was an eminent Austrian chemist and politician of Ukrainian origin.

From 1872 to 1878 he studied medicine at the University of Vienna, Austria. In 1883 he was appointed extraordinary professor and, in 1884, ordinary professor at the University of Prague by the Emperor, and was the rector of the same university for a time. He is particularly known for his contributions in organic chemistry and biochemistry. He was the first to synthesise uric acid from glycine in 1882. He also noticed that aminoacids were building blocks of proteins. Horbachevsky worked in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. It was as though the Dual Monarchy was responding to the Spanish flu when, on 30 July 1918, Imperial Councillor Ivan Horbachevsky was appointed by imperial decree the empire’s first health minister.