Scientist Profiles - William Roush

William R. Roush, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Associate Dean, Kellogg School of Science and Technology

Dr. William R. Roush, a native of Chula Vista, California, received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1974, where he performed undergraduate research with Professor Julius Rebek, and a Ph. D. degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1977 under the direction of Professor R. B. Woodward.  After an additional year as a postdoctoral associate in Professor Woodward's laboratory, he joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as Assistant Professor.  He moved to Indiana University in 1987, and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1989 and Distinguished Professor in 1995.  In 1997 he moved to the University of Michigan as the Warner Lambert/Parke Davis Professor of Chemistry.  He served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, from 2002-2004.  He moved to the new Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, as Professor of Chemistry, Executive Director of Medicinal Chemistry, and Associate Dean of the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology in 2005.

Dr. Roush has been a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, an Eli Lilly Grantee, and the holder of the Roger and Georges Firmenich Career Development Chair in Natural Products Chemistry at MIT.  He received a Merck Faculty Development Award in 1981, the 1992 Alan R. Day Award of the Philadelphia Organic Chemist's Club, the 1994 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society, and the 1996 American Chemical Society Akron Section Award.  In 1998 he received a Merit Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and in 1999 he received a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan.  In 2002 Dr. Roush received the Paul G. Gassman Distinguished Service Award of the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry, and in 2004 he received the American Chemical Society Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products.  Most recently, in 2006, Dr. Roush was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Roush has served terms as Secretary-Treasurer and Chairman of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Organic Chemistry, and as Chairman of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medicinal Chemistry Study Section.  He currently is Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Organic Letters, Accounts of Chemical Research, Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry, and Chemical Biology & Drug Design.  He is a Director of Organic Reactions, Inc., and of Organic Syntheses, Inc., and is a consultant for several companies. 

Dr. Roush's research interests focus on the stereocontrolled synthesis of stereochemically complex natural products, and on the design and development of new reactions and synthetic methods.  He is known for his stereochemical studies and synthetic applications of the intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction and his work in the area of asymmetric and acyclic diastereoselective synthesis, specifically the use of tartrate ester modified allylboronates and other allylmetal compounds for the aldol-like construction of propionate-derived systems. He has also made important contributions the synthesis of deoxyglycosides and polyhydroxylated natural products (his total synthesis of olivomycin A is particularly noteworthy), and to the design and synthesis of inhibitors of cysteine proteases targeting important human pathogens (e.g., Trypanosoma, Plasmodium, and Entamoeba species).  Since moving to Scripps Florida, his program in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry has expanded to include research on the development of inhibitors of kinases, inhibitors of certain epigenetic targets, inhibitors and activators of nuclear receptors, and studies of small molecule-antibody conjugates as potential therapeutic agents.

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