IIN Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series – Stephen Buchwald

Professor Stephen L. Buchwald

Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry
Associate Head, Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Co-hosted by the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the Department of Chemistry. 

Abstract

Part 1:  Progress in Asymmetric Hydrofunctionalization Processes.

The net addition of an N-H group across a carbon-carbon double bond represents an extremely efficient method to access amines.  In particular, the ability to conduct this transformation in a general and enantioselective manner is quite attractive.  In this lecture we will describe our success in developing a highly regio- and enantioselective process for the hydroamination (as well as other hydrofunctionalizaton processes) of a wide range of olefinic substrates.  We will also detail our studies in reaction optimization achieved by way of mechanistic studies.

Part 2:  A New Method for Bioconjugation.

We will describe our recently reported method for the use of Pd complexes to functionalize biological molecules.

Biography

Professor Stephen L. Buchwald was born (1955) in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his Sc.B. degree from Brown University in 1977 and his PhD from Harvard University in 1982. His doctoral research with Jeremy R. Knowles concerned the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer reactions. Following his PhD, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech with Professor Robert H. Grubbs.  In 1984, he became Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. After being promoted to Associate and Full Professor, Buchwald was named the Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry in 1997. In July 2015, he became Associate Head of the Chemistry Department at MIT.

Professor Buchwald is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including: an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Florida (2015); BBVA Frontiers in Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2014); Linus Pauling Medal (2014); Ulysses Medal, University College, Dublin (2014); Arthur C. Cope Award (2013); Gustavus J. Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest (2010); Siegfried Medal Award in Chemical Methods which Impact Process Chemistry (2006); ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2006); CAS Science Spotlight Award (2005); and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Distinguished Achievement Award (2005). In 2016, he will receive the William H. Nichols Award from the New York Section of the American Chemical Society. He is the coauthor of over 450 published or accepted papers and 47 issued patents.  He serves as a consultant to a number of companies, and is an associate editor of Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis.