Ryoji Noyori Prize Recipients
YEAR 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
| Professor Hisashi Yamamoto |
Professor, Professor, Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, U. S. A. |
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Professor Yamamotowas pioneered the use of binaphthol as a key ligand for chiral Lewis acid catalysts, which was the forerunner of a C-2 symmetry based chiral acid catalyst. His combined Bronsted and Lewis acid catalysts are the most efficient among the asymmetric acid catalyst and his super Bronsed acid catalysts play an important role in the step-economical synthesis of complex molecules. He also introduced V, Zr, Hf, and Fe catalysts for asymmetric oxidation. These achievements have had a seminal impact in asymmetric synthesis. |
| Professor Eric N. Jacobsen |
Professor, Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, U. S. A. |
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Professor jacobsen discovered useful, chiral salen-based catalysts for asymmetric epoxidation of simple olefins, as well as effective new catalysts for aziridnation, Diels-Alder, conjugate addition, hydrocyanation, and epoxide ring-opening reactions. He also pioneered the use of hydrogen-bonding catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. These methodologies, together with the mechanistic insights he has uncovered about them, have had a profound impact both in academia and in industry. |
| Professor Yoshio Okamoto |
Distinguished Invited University Professor, Nagoya University & Chair Professor, Harbin Engineering University |
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Professor Okamoto has made significant contribution to the areas of synthesis of helical polymers and their application to chiral separation of enantiomers. He was the first to succeed in the synthesis of one-handed helical polymer by asymmetric polymerization, and found its high chiral recognition ability to many racemic compounds. Using the polymer, he successfully developed a practical chiral packing material for HPLC. His another outstanding contribution is the development of very useful chiral packing materials based on helical polysaccharide derivatives, which are widely used throughout the world. |
| Professor Andreas Pfaltz |
Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Switzerland. |
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Professor Pfaltz is well known for his seminal contributions to asymmetric catalysis. The semicorrins developed in his group served as the prototype for an important new family of nitrogen ligands, the bisoxazolines, which have found widespread use in catalytic asymmetric synthesis. His work on phosphinooxazolines, known as PHOX ligands, has led to numerous efficient chiral transition metal catalysts. Most noteworthy are iridium-PHOX and related complexes, which are the first catalysts that allow highly enantioselective hydrogenation of unfunctionalized, purely alkyl-substituted olefins and, therefore, greatly enhance the scope of asymmetric hydrogenation. |
| Professor Tamio Hayashi |
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Japan |
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Professor Hayashi is best known for his insightful and seminal contributions to the area of catalytic asymmetric synthesis, especially carbon-carbon bond forming reactions using chiral transition metal catalysts. He was the first to succeed in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric cross-coupling, gold-catalyzed asymmetric aldol-type reaction, and rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric addition reactions. His another outstanding contribution is the development of new and powerful chiral ligands. Chiral ferrocenylphosphines have been widely used for various types of asymmetric reactions, and the chiral dienes he designed recently are attracting particular attention as an unprecedented type of chiral ligands. |
| Professor David A. Evans |
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, |
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Professor Evans has made significant advances in the design of stereoselective reactions and the applications of these reactions to natural products synthesis. Especially enantioselective Diels-Alder, Michael, and aldol reactions are three of the important families of processes developed in his group. In the area of synthetic design, he has archieved synthesis of complex natural products through the exclusive use of chiral auxiliaries to control stereochemical relationships. Evans' chiral auxiliaries and chiral catalysts for enantioselective bond formation are widely used in both industrial and academic laboratories throughout the world. |
| Professor Tsutomu Katsuki |
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Graduate School, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan |
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Professor Katsuki has been contributing to advancement of ecological asymmetric synthesis as a leading chemist, demonstrating the power of molecular catalysis comparable to that of enzyme. He has discovered asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols in collaboration with Professor K. Barry Sharpless and recently reported asymmetric epoxidation of simple olefins using aqueous hydrogen peroxide. He first introduced chiral catalysts activated by photo-irradiation and realized various aerobic asymmetric oxidations |
| Professor Dieter Seebach |
Laboratorium fur Organische Chemie, ETH Honggerberg, Switzerland |
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Professor Seebach has been serving as one of the top scientists more than four decades, creatingsa range of new concepts and paradigms in organic synthesis. His contributions have made ever-increasing impact not only on fundamental as well as practical organic synthesis, but also on various related fields, including material sciences and biochemical fields. |
Professor | Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. | |
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Professor Stork has been leading the field of organic synthesis for over half a century. With his cantharidin synthesis and the Stork-Eschenmoser hypothesis of steroid synthesis in the 1950's, he introduced the concept of "stereoselective organic synthesis" and created a number of fundamental synthetic methods such as enamine and enol silyl ether methodologies and radical cyclization. In 2001, he published the first completely stereoselective total synthesis of quinine. |
Emeritus Professor |
Laboratoire de Synthese Asymetrique |
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Professor Kagan has been a leader in the field of asymmetric synthesis, presenting many first examples including those of asymmetric synthesis using circularly polarized light, a chiral bidentate diphosphine ligand (DIOP), and a chiral "homogeneous" supported catalyst. |
