2010 Nobel laureate to speak at Syracuse University Feb. 1

2010 Nobel laureate Ei-ichi Negishi, the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry at Purdue University, returns to Syracuse University to present a discussion of his work at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1 in the Center for Science and Technology, Room 1-019. The lecture is hosted by the Department of Chemistry in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s paid lots. 

Negishi received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in May 2011 from SU and was a member of the University’s Department of Chemistry from 1972 through 1979, which is where he began the research that would ultimately lead to a Nobel Prize. His lecture, “Tandem ZACA – Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling as Widely Applicable and Selective Routes to Chiral Organic Compounds,” will highlight some of his most notable accomplishments.

Negishi is a pioneer in developing metal-based reactions called palladium-catalyzed cross coupling that allow for easy and efficient synthesis of complex organic compounds.  By creating a more precise method for coupling two different (or same) carbon groups, Negishi created a powerful tool for synthesizing a wide range of useful chemicals used in medicine, agriculture, and electronics. The Nobel Prize Committee described Negishi’s coupling reactions as “great art in a test tube” and “one of the most sophisticated tools available to organic chemists today.”

Negishi has published more than 400 research papers and two books, including the two-volume Handbook of Organopalladium Chemistry for Organic Synthesis (Wiley-Interscience, 2002). In addition to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Negishi has received numerous awards and honors. In 2011, he was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Order of Griffin from Purdue University. He received the Japanese Order of Culture and named a Japanese Person of Cultural Merit in 2010. Other honors include the ACS Award for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2010); Yamada-Kaga Prize in Japan (2007); the Gold Medal of Charles University, Prague (2007); the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship (2000); the Alexander von Humboldt Award, Senior Researcher (1998-2001); a J.S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1987); and a Fulbright Scholarship (1960-1963), among others.

Negishi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

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