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Jin-Quan Yu Wins Sackler Prize

Jin-Quan Yu, the Frank and Bertha Hupp Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has been awarded the 2013 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences for Chemistry from Tel Aviv University. He shares the prize—intended to encourage dedication to science, originality and excellence by rewarding outstanding young scientists—with Melanie S. Sanford, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan.

Yu and Sanford were cited for “for their seminal contributions to the catalytic functionalization of carbon-hydrogen bonds, development of practical methodologies for applications in the synthesis of complex organic molecules and mechanistic understanding of metal-based organic transformations,” according to the award announcement.

Yu’s work focuses on the development of new strategies and tools to accelerate catalytic C-H activation reactions. These reactions selectively convert the targeted C-H bond among many in molecules into a functional group that bestows the desired biological activity to a drug candidate.

TSRI Professor Phil Baran also won the Sackler Prize for chemistry in 2009.

Organic Letters Highlights Contributions of Valery Fokin, Carlos Barbas, William Roush

TSRI faculty members Valery Fokin and Carlos Barbas were corresponding authors on two of the top-10 most frequently cited papers in the more than 18,000 papers published by the journal Organic Letters since 1999. The journal’s 15^th anniversary issue also highlighted the numerous contributions of TSRI Professor William R. Roush.

The journal listed as its second-most cited paper a 2004 publication authored by Timothy R. Chan, Robert Hilgraf , K. Barry Sharpless, and Fokin, “Polytriazoles as Copper(I)-Stabilizing Ligands in Catalysis.”

The ninth-most cited paper was a 2001 publication by Juan M. Betancort and Barbas, “Catalytic Direct Asymmetric Michael Reactions: Taming Naked Aldehyde Donors.”

Roush, who is also executive director of Medicinal Chemistry and associate dean of graduate studies at Scripps Florida, was listed as the seventh-most prolific author with the publication.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

TSRI Professor Jin-Quan Yu has won the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize, intended to encourage dedication to science, originality and excellence by rewarding outstanding young scientists.

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Jin-Quan Yu Wins Sackler Prize

Organic Letters Highlights Contributions of Valery Fokin, Carlos Barbas, William Roush