Asher Mandelbaum, Professor Emeritus at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, passed away on June 21, 2020. He was well-known for his contributions to mass spectrometry, in particular, concerning stereochemical effects in the mass spectrometry of organic compounds.
Asher Mandelbaum was born in Krakow, Poland, in late December 1934. As a part of the Jewish community in Nazi-occupied Poland, he and his family had to hide for several years during his childhood. After World War II, the family emigrated to Israel via France. Mandelbaum studied chemistry at Technion, where he received his Ph.D. under the supervision of Michael Cais in 1963. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. Asher Mandelbaum then joined the faculty of Technion as Lecturer and as Head of the just-established laboratory for organic mass spectrometry and remained at Technion until his retirement.
Selected Publications
- Fragmentation of some substituted ferrocenes under electron impact,
Asher Mandelbaum, Michael Cais,
Tetrahedron Lett. 1964, 51, 3847–3852.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(01)93304-0 - Studies in mass spectrometry IV. Steric direction of fragmentation in cis– and trans-B:C ring-fused morphine derivatives,
Asher Mandelbaum, David Ginsburg,
Tetrahedron Lett. 1965, 29, 2479–2489.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(01)84010-7 - Mass spectra of silazanes,
Jakob. Silbiger, Chava. Lifshitz, Joshua. Fuchs, Asher. Mandelbaum,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1967, 89, 4308–4312.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00993a010 - The “even-electron rule”,
Miriam Karni, Asher Mandelbaum,
Org. Mass Spectrom. 1980, 15, 53–64.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oms.1210150202 - Unimolecular equilibration of isomeric cation radicals. Mechanism of decomposition of ionized methyl isobutyrate in the gas phase,
Philip H. Hemberger, Jan C. Kleingeld, Karsten Levsen, Nili Mainzer, Asher Mandelbaum, Nico M. M. Nibbering, Helmut Schwarz, Raymund Weber, Adrian Weisz, Chrysostomos Wesdemiotis,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 3736–3745.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00531a013 - Stereochemical effects in mass spectrometry,
Asher Mandelbaum,
Mass Spectrom. Rev. 1983, 2, 223–284.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mas.1280020203
