Scholarship and Biography

I work on the development of new methods for the construction of highly functionalized organic molecules and the synthesis of natural products, which often have useful drug-like activity but are often not available in sufficient quantity from the plants and animals that produce them. A large number of the drugs currently in use, including the statins, most antibiotics and many cancer drugs are either natural products or derived from them. Thus this chemistry is closely related to work that is done in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Honors

Predoctoral Fellow
National Science Foundation (United States, Arlington) - NSF, 1970-1973
Postdoctoral Fellow
National Institutes of Health (United States, Bethesda) - NIH, 1975
Dupont Young Faculty Grant
DuPont (United States, Wilmington), 1977
Sloan Fellow
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (United States, New York), 1979-1983
Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (United States, New York), 1982-1987
Medicinal Chemistry Study Section, Division of Research Grants
National Institutes of Health (United States, Bethesda) - NIH, 1992-1995
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 1995
Chair, Medicinal Chemistry Study Section
National Institutes of Health (United States, Bethesda) - NIH, 1995-1997
Fellowship
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Japan, Tokyo) - JSPS, 1999
Boehringer Ingelheim Distinguished Lecturer
Université de Sherbrooke (Canada, Sherbrooke), 2004
Chair-Elect of the Division of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2005
Honorary Professor
East China University of Science and Technology (China, Shanghai) - ECUST, 2006
Chair of the Division of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2007
Past Chair of the Division of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2008
Fellow
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2011
Secretary-Treasurer, Division of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2014-2016
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the The Journal of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2014-2017
Treasurer, Division of Organic Chemistry
American Chemical Society (United States, Washington D.C.) - ACS, 2017
Secretary, Organic Reactions series
Organic Reactions, Incorporated, 2020-2030

Organizational Affiliations

Charles A. Breskin Professor of Organic Chemistry, Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University

Education

Harvard University
Ph.D.
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
B.S.