Rocco Ungaro, 40 years of Calixarene chemistry

During the Calix2015 conference that took place in Giardini Naxos in July of this year, the first C. David Gutsche Award for Calixarene Chemistry was awarded to one of the founders of the field, Professor Rocco Ungaro of the University of Parma. In this paper, Rocco Ungaro’s seminal contributions to the field are described. His collaborations with many other groups, his role in the European supramolecular chemistry community and his most important scientific results are briefly summarised. Probably the first time I saw Rocco was in August 1978 at the Conference on Macrocyclization organised by Illuminati and Mandolini in Castel Gandolfo (Italy). We were both there but I do not recall meeting him personally. A few years later, we did meet in Stresa where we discussed our chemistry. In 1982, Rocco invited David Gutsche and myself to the Inclusion Phenomena meeting in Parma