Molecular chemist, born in Methuen, Massachusetts, USA. He joined the University of Illinois (19519), then moved to Harvard. He is known for the technique of retrosynthetic analysis, used in synthesizing complex pharmaceuticals, in which a chemist plans the molecule to be synthesized and studies its theoretical structure. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1990.
Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist.
At MIT, he earned both a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D.
Major contributions
Reagents
He has developed several new synthetic reagents:
PCC (pyridinium chlorochromate), and PDC (pyridinium dichromate): widely used for the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes.Also the Corey-Bakshi-Shibata reduction stands as the most practical system for the asymmetric reduction of ketones to secondary alcohols.
Methodology
Several reactions developed in the E.J. Corey labs have become commonplace in modern synthetic organic chemistry. Corey-Fuchs reaction Corey-Kim oxidation Corey-Winter olefin synthesis Corey-House-Posner-Whitesides reaction Johnson-Corey-Chaykovsky reaction
Total syntheses
E.
Other notable syntheses include:
Longifolene Lactacystin Miroestrol Ecteinascidin 743 Oseltamivir (Tamiflu)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.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. Another suicide in his lab occurred about a year and half earlier, although the 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 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'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. 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". It is unknown whether any vestiges of the department's nine-step plan toward graduate student health and happiness remain, though it was highly-publicized following Altom's suicide.
Corey, speaking of the suicide note, states: "[T]hat letter doesn't make sense.
The molecule on which Altom was working, aspidophytine, was subsequently completed by postdoctoral research associates and published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1999 with, controversially, Altom listed as the last author (other than Corey).
Woodward-Hoffmann rules
Recently when awarded the Priestley Medal, E.
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