Elias James Corey

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Image:EliasJamesCorey.gif Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist. In 1990 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis.Template:RefTemplate:Ref Regarded by many as one of the greatest living chemists, he has developed numerous synthetic reagents, methodologies, and has advanced the science of organic synthesis considerably.

At MIT, he earned both a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1951. Immediately, he joined the faculty of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1959, he moved to Harvard University, where he is currently an emeritus professor of organic chemistry. He was awarded the American Chemical Society's greatest honor, the Priestley Medal, in 2004.

"Without Corey, modern organic synthesis could not exist," -- Ryoji Noyori, 2001 Chemistry Nobel Laureate

Contents

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Major contributions

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Reagents

He has developed several new synthetic reagents:

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Methodology

Several reactions developed in the E.J. Corey labs have become commonplace in modern synthetic organic chemistry. Several reactions have been named after him:

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Total syntheses

E. J. Corey and his research group have completed many total syntheses. His 1969 total syntheses of several prostaglandins are considered classics.Template:RefTemplate:Ref

Image:Corey Lactone.png

Other notable syntheses include:

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Graduate student death

Corey has gained a certain infamy in the field of chemistry for having one graduate student commit suicide and explicitly blame the advisor (Corey) for doing so. A second suicide also occurred in his lab although the student was only at Harvard for one week before doing so and was unrelated to working for Corey.

The graduate student, Jason Altom, was a Ph.D. student at Harvard University who committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide in 1998, citing in his suicide note "abusive research supervisors" as one reason for taking his life. Altom was working on one of the most complex natural products and felt enormous pressure to finish the molecule before starting his academic career.

Altom's suicide highlighted the pressures on Ph.D. students, problems of isolation in graduate school, and sources of tension between graduate mentors and their students. His case prompted many universities to insist that Ph.D. students have an advisory committee in addition to a supervisor, to whom they might turn for support: James Anderson, who became Harvard Chemistry Department Chairman, stated that "Jason's death prompted an examination of the role the department should play in graduate students' lives". Anderson went on to promise that students will also have "confidential and seamless access" to psychological counselling services, paid for by the department. However, as of 2004, this access was terminated.

Corey, speaking of the suicide note, states: "[T]hat letter doesn't make sense. At the end, Jason must have been delusional or irrational in the extreme." Corey also is on record as stating that he never questioned Mr. Altom's intellectual contributions. "I did my best to guide Jason as a mountain guide would to guide someone climbing a mountain. I did my best every step of the way," Corey states. "My conscience is clear. Everything Jason did came out of our partnership. We never had the slightest disagreement."

Corey's office at Harvard University is also infamous for the redlight / greenlight on the outside of the door.

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Woodward-Hoffmann rules

Recently when awarded the Priestley Medal, E. J. Corey has controversially claimed to have inspired Robert Burns Woodward prior to the development of the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. This was rebutted by Roald Hoffmann in the journal Angewandte Chemie.Template:Ref

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References

  1. Template:Note E. J. Corey, X-M. Cheng, The Logic of Chemical Synthesis, Wiley, New York, 1995, ISBN 0471115940.
  2. Template:Note "The Logic of Chemical Synthesis: Multistep Synthesis of Complex Carbogenic Molecules (Nobel Lecture)" E.J. Corey, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1991, 30, 455.
  3. Template:Note Corey, E.J., and Suggs, W. 'Pyridinium Chlorochromate. An Efficient Reagent for Oxidation of Primary and Secondary Alcohols to Carbonyl Compounds', Tetrahedron Lett. 1975, 31, 2647-2650.
  4. Template:Note Corey, E. J.; Venkateswarlu, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1972, 94, 6190-6191.
  5. Template:Note E. J. Corey, N. M. Weinshenker, T. K. Schaaf, W. Huber, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1969, 91, 5675.
  6. Template:Note K. C. Nicolaou, E. J. Sorensen, Classics in Total Synthesis, VCH, New York, 1996, ISBN 3527292314.
  7. Template:Note Corey, E. J. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1961, 83, 1251.
  8. Template:Note Corey, E. J. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1964, 86, 478.
  9. Template:Note "Total Synthesis of Lactacystin" Corey, E. J.; Reichard, G. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992, 114, 10677.
  10. Template:Note "Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Miroestrol" Corey, E. J.; Wu, L. I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 9327.
  11. Template:Note Corey, E. J.; Gin, D. Y.; Kania, R. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 9202-9203.
  12. Template:Note "A Simple Stereocontrolled Synthesis of Salinosporamide A" Reddy, L. R.; Saravanan, P.; Corey, E. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 6230 (abstract).
  13. Template:Note R. Hoffmann Angew. Chem. 2004, 43, 6586-6590.
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External links

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