2003 Recipient, ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry sponsored by the Aldrich Chemical Company Synthetic and Mechanistic Studies on Silicon-Based Cross-Coupling Reactions Scott E. Denmark Department of Chemistry University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Thursday, October 16, 2003 Fireside Lounge - UWM Union University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Kenwood Blvd, Milwaukee, WI (Talk will be in 150 Bolton Hall)

DIRECTIONS

This lecture covers the conceptual development, synthetic scope and limitation and mechanistic studies on the use of various organofunctional silicon species in palladium-catalyzed, cross-coupling reactions. The diversity of methods for the installation of silicon units in organic molecules and the formulation of practica procedures based on mechanistic insights are highlighted. Applications i total synthesis are also presented.

Scott E. Denmark was born in New York on 17 June 1953. He obtained an S. B. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975. His graduate studies were carried out at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich under the direction of Professor Albert Eschenmoser, and culminated with the D. Sc. Tech degree in 1980. That same year he began his career as assistant professor at the University of Illinois. He was promoted to associate professor in 1986, full professor in 1987 and then in 1991 named the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry.

Professor Denmark is primarily interested in the invention of new synthetic reactions and the origin of stereocontrol in fundamental carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. He has carried out extensive mechanistic and stereochemical studies on the additions of allylmetals to aldehydes and acetals and has investigated the origins of stereocontrol in the aldol reaction. The current emphasis in his laboratories centers on the relationship between structure, reactivity and stereoselectivity in a variety of organo-element systems such as: palladium catalyzed couplings with strained ring and silicon compounds, asymmetric catalysis of aldol and allylmetal addition reactions with chiral Lewis bases, enantioselective cyclopropanation with organozinc reagents, and asymmetric reactions of dioxirane-based oxidizing agents and organolithium reagents. In addition his research program encompasses the development and application of tandem heterodiene cycloadditions for the synthesis of complex polycyclic alkaloids.

Professor Denmark has won a number of honors for both research and teaching. These include: Eli Lilly Research Award, Beckman Endowment Research Award, A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Procter and Gamble University Exploratory Research Program Award, University Scholar (University of Illinois), School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Award, Stuart Pharmaceuticals Award, A. C. Cope Scholar Award, Alexander Von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, Pedler Lecturer (Royal Society of Chemistry), the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Denmark is currently on the Board of Editors of Organic Reactions and Organic Syntheses and has served on many editorial advisory boards. He is an Associate Editor of Organic Letters and the Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis. He is also the Editor of Topics in Stereochemistry.