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Karl Barry Sharpless

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Nationality
  
United States

Spouse
  
Jan Dueser (m. 1965)

Role
  
Chemist

Name
  
Karl Sharpless

Fields
  
Chemistry


Karl Barry Sharpless wwwnobelprizeorgnobelprizeschemistrylaureate

Born
  
28 April 1941 (age 83) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (
1941-04-28
)

Institutions
  
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Scripps Research Institute

Alma mater
  
Dartmouth CollegeStanford UniversityHarvard University

Known for
  
enantioselective synthesis, click chemistry

Notable awards
  
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2001)Wolf Prize (2001)Benjamin Franklin Medal (2001)Rylander Award (2000)Chemical Sciences Award (2000)Chiralty Medal (2000)Rhone Poulenc Medal (2000)Harvey Prize (1998)Microbial Chemistry Medal (1997)King Faisal International Prize (1995)Cliff Hamilton Award (1995)Tetrahedron Prize (1993)Centenary Lectureship Medal (1993)Arthur C. Cope Award (1992)Scheele Award (1991)Chemical Pioneer Award (1988)Dr. Paul Janssen Prize (1986)Allan Day Award (1985)

Children
  
Hannah Sharpless, Isaac Sharpless, William Sharpless

Books
  
Click Chemistry: In Chemistry, Biology and Macromolecular Science

Education
  
Awards
  
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Wolf Prize in Chemistry

Similar People
  
William Standish Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, Henri B Kagan, Elias James Corey, Eugene van Tamelen

Karl Barry Sharpless | Wikipedia audio article


Karl Barry Sharpless (born April 28, 1941) is an American chemist known for his work on stereoselective reactions. He is a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Contents

Karl Barry Sharpless Karl Barry Sharpless Sequence YouTube

Early years

Karl Barry Sharpless wwwnobelprizeorgnobelprizeschemistrylaureate

Sharpless was born April 28, 1941 in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from Friends' Central School in 1959. He continued his studies at Dartmouth College earning a B.A. in 1963 and a Ph.D in chemistry from Stanford University in 1968. He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University (1968–1969) and Harvard University.(1969–1970). He holds honorary degrees from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (1995) Technical University of Munich (1995), Catholic University Louvain, Belgium (1996) and Weselyan University (1999). He was blinded in one eye during a lab accident in 1970, shortly after he arrived at MIT as an assistant professor.

Academic career

Sharpless has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970–1977, 1980–1990) and Stanford University (1977–1980) He currently holds the W. M. Keck professorship in chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute (1990-)

Research

Sharpless developed stereoselective oxidation reactions, and showed that the formation of an inhibitor with femtomolar potency can be catalyzed by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, beginning with an azide and an alkyne. He discovered several chemical reactions which have transformed asymmetric synthesis from science fiction to the relatively routine, including aminohydroxylation, dihydroxylation, and the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation.

In 2001 he won a half-share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation, Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation, Sharpless oxyamination). The other half of the year's Prize was shared between William S. Knowles and Ryōji Noyori (for their work on stereoselective hydrogenation).

He also successfully epoxidized (using racemic tartaric acid) a C-86 Buckminster Fullerene ball, employing p-Cresol as solvent. More recently he has been an important figure in the new field of click chemistry. This involves a set of highly selective, exothermic reactions which occur under mild conditions; the most successful example is the azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition to form 1,2,3-triazoles.

Personal life

Sharpless married Jan Dueser on April 28, 1965. They have three children; Hannah (b. 1976), William (b. 1978), and Isaac (b. 1980).

References

Karl Barry Sharpless Wikipedia


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