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Sigma Xi Chapter The Scientific Research Honor Society

Faculty Research Awards 2003

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi

Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

"Research as a Lifelong Hobby. A Way of Maximizing One's Research Contribution"

The Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award for 2003 is presented to Professor Ei-ichi Negishi for his innovative research contributions in organic synthesis through discoveries, development, and structural and mechanistic investigations as well as practical applications of transition metal-catalyzed carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond-forming reactions.

Dr. Negishi earned his Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Tokyo and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He practiced as a research chemist with Teijin, Ltd. prior to coming to Purdue University to study organoborane chemistry with Professor Herbert C. Brown as a Postdoctoral Associate in 1966. After spending 7 years on the faculty of Syracuse University, he returned to Purdue in 1979 as a Professor and became a distinguished professor in 1999.

Dr. Negishi has received many prestigious awards including the Herbert N. McCoy Award in 1998, an award presented by Purdue University for highest research advancement. He was the 1997 recipient of the Chemical Society of Japan Award, the 1998 recipient of the American Chemical Society Organometallic Chemistry Award, the 2000 recipient of the Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship, Royal Society of Chemistry, and a past recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Researcher Award in Germany. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Tokyo, the University of Göttingen, the Technical University of Berlin,and the National University of Singapore. He recently completed a term as Editorial Advisory Board Member of Organometallics. Last year he was editor of the two volume "Handbook of Organopalladium Chemistry for Organic Synthesis". He has published over 300 papers.

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi has been one of the true pioneers and international leaders in the area of organometallic chemistry, especially in organotransition metal chemistry, for organic synthesis. Examples of his contributions follow:

  • Discovery of new reactions-1) Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of organometals known as the Negishi coupling (listed in Merck Index, 13th Ed.), 2) first Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling of organometals containing B, and 3) Zr-catalyzed carboalumination of alkynes and Zr-catalyzed enantioselective carboalumination of alkenes known as the Negishi carboalumination.
  • Development of new reactions to provide synthetically useful methods and procedures such as the Zr-promoted cyclization and bicylization with n-Bu2ZrCp2 known as Negishi's reagent.
  • Mechanistic and structural investigations of Zr-catalyzed or –promoted addition, cyclization, and migration reaction.
  • Natural product synthesis of compounds including lissoclinolide, xerulin, coenzyme Q10, and vitamin E.

The Purdue Chapter of Sigma Xi is pleased to recognize Professor Ei-ichi Negishi with its 2003 Faculty Research Award, an award designed to honor a person of this caliber.