Elias James Corey
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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.[1][2] 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.
He was born "William" to Lebanese immigrants in Methuen, Massachusetts 30 miles north of Boston. His mother changed his name to "Elias" to honor his father who passed away eighteen months after the birth of his son. His widowed mother, brother, two sisters and an aunt and uncle all lived together in a spacious house- struggling through the depression. He attended Catholic elementary school and Lawrence public High School.[1]
At MIT, he earned both a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1951. Both degrees were in chemistry. 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.
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[edit] Major contributions
[edit] Reagents
He has developed several new synthetic reagents:
- PCC (pyridinium chlorochromate), and PDC (pyridinium dichromate): widely used for the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes.[3]
- t-Butyldimethylsilyl ether (TBDMS),[4] Triisopropylsilyl ether (TIPS), and Methoxyethoxymethyl (MEM): popular alcohol protecting groups.
[edit] 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:
- Corey-Bakshi-Shibata reduction (CBS reduction): Asymmetric ketone reduction.
- Corey-Fuchs reaction
- Corey-Kim oxidation
- Corey-Winter olefin synthesis
- Corey-House-Posner-Whitesides reaction
- Johnson-Corey-Chaykovsky reaction
[edit] Total syntheses
E. J. Corey and his research group have completed many total syntheses. His 1969 total syntheses of several prostaglandins are considered classics.[5][6]
Corey first made ginkgolide B, an active chemical originally identified in the ginkgo tree. This agent is used to treat asthma and circulatory system dysfunction.
Other notable syntheses include:
- Longifolene[7][8]
- Lactacystin[9]
- Miroestrol[10]
- Ecteinascidin 743[11]
- Oseltamivir (Tamiflu)[12]
[edit] Praise
Ryoji Noyori, the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate has commented that "without Corey, modern organic synthesis could not exist."
A press releasedescribing Corey's accomplishments following his receiving the 1990 Nobel Prize stated:
- "To perform the total syntheses successfully, Corey was also obliged to develop some fifty entirely new or considerably improved synthesis reactions or reagents. It is probable that no other chemist has developed such a comprehensive and varied assortment of methods which, often showing the simplicity of genius, have become commonplace in the synthesising laboratory. His systematic use of different types of organometallic reagent has revolutionised recent techniques of synthesis in many respects."
[edit] 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. Corey was about 70 years old at the time. Another suicide in his lab occurred about a year and half earlier, although that student had only been at Harvard for six months at the time and had only recently begun working for Corey. The graduate student, Jason Altom, was a Ph.D. student at Harvard University committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide in 1998, citing in his suicide note "abusive research supervisors" as one reason for taking his life. Altom's suicide note had been described as a "policy paper." [2]
[edit] 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.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ E. J. Corey, X-M. Cheng, The Logic of Chemical Synthesis, Wiley, New York, 1995, ISBN 0-471-11594-0.
- ^ "The Logic of Chemical Synthesis: Multistep Synthesis of Complex Carbogenic Molecules (Nobel Lecture)" E.J. Corey, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1991, 30, 455.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Corey, E. J.; Venkateswarlu, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1972, 94, 6190-6191. (DOI:10.1021/ja00772a043)
- ^ E. J. Corey, N. M. Weinshenker, T. K. Schaaf, W. Huber, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1969, 91, 5675-5677. (DOI:10.1021/ja01048a062)
- ^ K. C. Nicolaou, E. J. Sorensen, Classics in Total Synthesis, VCH, New York, 1996, ISBN 3-527-29231-4.
- ^ Corey, E. J.; Ohno, M.; Vatakencherry, P. A.; Mitra, R. B. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1961, 83, 1251-1253. (DOI:10.1021/ja01466a056)
- ^ "Total Synthesis of Longifolene" Corey, E. J.; Ohno, M.; Mitra, R. B.; Vatakencherry, P. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1964, 86, 478-485. (DOI:10.1021/ja01057a039)
- ^ "Total Synthesis of Lactacystin" Corey, E. J.; Reichard, G. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992, 114, 10677.
- ^ "Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Miroestrol" Corey, E. J.; Wu, L. I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 9327.
- ^ Corey, E. J.; Gin, D. Y.; Kania, R. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 9202-9203.
- ^ "A Short Enantioselective Pathway for the Synthesis of the Anti-Influenza Neuramidase Inhibitor Oseltamivir from 1,3-Butadiene and Acrylic Acid" Yeung, Y.-Y.; Hong, S.; Corey, E. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 6310-6311. (DOI:10.1021/ja0616433)
- ^ R. Hoffmann Angew. Chem. 2004, 43, 6586-6590.
[edit] External links
- Elias James Corey
- Elias James Corey Nobel Lecture (PDF)
- Story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Altom suicide and two others in this lab
- A digital photograph purporting to be the "traffic light" regulating Corey's potential office visitors
Categories: 1928 births | Living people | American chemists | Arab Americans | Lebanese Americans | Nobel laureates in Chemistry | Members and associates of the United States National Academy of Sciences | National Medal of Science recipients | Priestley Medal | Japan Prize laureates | Foreign Members of the Royal Society | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty
