John A. Gladysz, [1] an organometallic chemist, is a Distinguished Professor [2] and holds the Dow Chair in Chemical Invention at Texas A&M University. Professor Gladysz is a native of the Kalamazoo, Michigan area. He obtained his B.S. degree from the University of Michigan (1971) [3] and his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University (1974). [4] He subsequently held faculty positions at UCLA (1974-1982) and the University of Utah (1982-1998). He then accepted the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. [5] In 2008, he returned to North America as a distinguished professor and holder of the Dow Chair in Chemical Invention at Texas A&M University. [6]
Gladysz was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on August 13, 1952, and grew up in the small community of Galesburg [7] between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.
Gladysz completed four semesters at Western Michigan University. He then transferred to the University of Michigan, where during his first semester, he took honors organic chemistry from Prof. Daniel Longone. During the next semester, he began a research project involving cyclophanes. [8] He then enrolled in or audited graduate courses and seminars. He continued research with Prof. Longone for two months after graduating (BS Chem) in April 1971, [9] and then headed west to Stanford University, where he immediately joined the research group of Prof. E. E. van Tamelen [10]
Prof. van Tamelen had a long-standing interest in nitrogen fixation, and Prof. Gladysz undertook two projects for his Ph.D. dissertation. One was directed at the mode of activation in nitrogenase, and entailed both molybdenum nitrogen complexes and iron/sulfur clusters; [11] [12] the other involved organic transformations mediated by titanium(II). [13] These projects introduced him to working with air-sensitive compounds. He was also greatly influenced by a course on organometallic chemistry taught by James P. Collman. There was an extensive flow of expertise and ideas between the groups of Prof. Collman, Prof. Henry Taube, and Prof. Eugene van Tamelen at Stanford, and this stimulating atmosphere played a major role in the development of Prof. Gladysz's future research on the organic/inorganic interface. [14]
When Gladysz began as an assistant professor at UCLA on July 1, 1974, he was, at least for the next six weeks, 21 years of age. This early start, coupled with the active program of seminar visitors at UCLA, allowed him to get to know many organic and inorganic chemists who began their careers shortly after the Second World War. Although he developed interests in metal atom chemistry and hydride reagents for organic synthesis, he made his early reputation in C1 chemistry – specifically the chemistry of metal formyl (-CHO), hydroxymethyl (-CH2OH), formaldehyde (H2C=O), and methylidene (=CH2) complexes, as well as related species that were rare at that time (and believed to be intermediates in catalytic CO/H2 chemistry). [15]
While at UCLA, Gladysz was named a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (1980) [16] [17] and a recipient of Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Grant (1980). [18] In July 1982, he relocated to the University of Utah, where his research expanded to include organometallic stereochemistry and applications in enantioselective organic synthesis. While there, he received an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1988), [19] the University of Utah Distinguished Research Award (1992), [20] and a Humboldt Foundation Research Award for Senior Scientists (1995-1996). [21] In conjunction with the latter, he spent six months at the University of Marburg, and then a final month at the Technical University of Munich.
In the course of the Humboldt sponsored sabbatical, Prof. Gladysz gave a seminar at the ETH Zurich. His hosts invited the seminar speaker scheduled for the next day, Prof. Janet Bluemel (Technical University of Munich), to the customary dinner (Nachsitzung). This introduction led to a variety of interactions during his subsequent stay in Munich. These in turn led to their marriage on December 28, 1997, in Salt Lake City. [22] Prof. Gladysz subsequently assumed the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he succeeded Paul von Rague Schleyer, on April 1, 1998; Prof. Bluemel assumed a professorship on the same day at the University of Heidelberg. [23]
During his period in Germany, Gladysz was able to greatly expand his programs dealing with molecular wires and fluorous chemistry begun at Utah. István T. Horváth, then working at ExxonMobil’s Corporate Research Laboratories was a frequent collaborator on the latter project. Prof. Gladysz established a number of novel ring-closing metatheses in metal coordination spheres, the most interesting of which afforded a class of compounds that can be regarded as "molecular gyroscopes". Prof. Gladysz enjoyed all levels of the German and European scientific scenes and received the International Fluorous Technologies Award in 2007. However, he and Prof. Bluemel sought to optimize their personal and professional lives with appointments at the same University. [24]
This goal was realized during 2007-2008 when Bluemel and Gladysz relocated to Texas A&M University. Prof. Gladysz was appointed as the Dow Chair in Chemical Invention and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. [25] He was furthermore elected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in the inaugural year, 2009, [26] and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013. [27] Prof. Gladysz' research at Texas A&M has continued to prominently feature catalysis (phase transfer catalyst activation; [28] Werner complexes as chiral hydrogen bond donor catalysts), [29] and expanded into container molecules that "turn themselves inside out". [30] He received the Texas A&M Distinguished Achievement Award in Research, [31] and the Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Organometallic Chemistry, [32] both in 2013.
In 2017, Prof. Gladysz and Prof. Bluemel were jointly awarded the Texas A&M Foundation Partners in Philanthropy Faculty Award. [33] They live on the Crow's Nest Ranch, [34] which consists of 140 acres (60 hectares) 4 miles east of College Station.
Gladysz research centers around organometallic chemistry, and from this core branches into nanotechnology, stereochemistry, organic synthesis, enantioselective reactions, catalysis, mechanism, and materials chemistry. This work has been described in nearly 500 widely cited publications. [35]
From June 1984 through July 2010, he was an associate editor of Chemical Reviews [36] [37] , where he and Editor-in-Chief Prof. Josef Michl introduced a number of innovative new features. He then succeeded Prof. Dietmar Seyferth as the editor in chief of Organometallics, [38] a position he held until January 2015. As an author, Prof. Gladysz has published nearly 500 journal articles and book chapters with over 23,500 independent citations and an h-index of 80. [39] These are augmented by nearly 100 Editorials, patents and patent applications, and book and meeting reviews.
Gladysz professional awards & honors are listed below:
Jack Halpern was an inorganic chemist, the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Born in Poland, he moved to Canada in 1929 and the United States in 1962.
Tobin Jay Marks is an inorganic chemistry Professor, the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Among the themes of his research are synthetic organo-f-element and early-transition metal organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, molecule-based photonic materials, superconductivity, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and biological aspects of transition metal chemistry.
Sir David William Cross MacMillan is a Scottish chemist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2010 to 2015. He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Benjamin List "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis". MacMillan used his share of the $1.14 million prize to establish the May and Billy MacMillan Foundation.
Robert George Bergman is an American chemist. He is Professor of the Graduate School and Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
Irina Petrovna Beletskaya is a Soviet and Russian professor of chemistry at Moscow State University. She specializes in organometallic chemistry and its application to problems in organic chemistry. She is best known for her studies on aromatic reaction mechanisms, as well as work on carbanion acidity and reactivity. She developed some of the first methods for carbon-carbon bond formation using palladium or nickel catalysts, and extended these reactions to work in aqueous media. She also helped to open up the chemistry of organolanthanides.
Kyoko Nozaki is a Japanese chemist and Professor of Chemistry at University of Tokyo in Japan.
István T. Horváth was a Hungarian American chemist, working on greener and more sustainable chemistry since its inception. In particular, he focuses on homogeneous transition metal catalysis and in situ spectroscopy. He was highly involved and very influential in the now enormous field of fluorous solvents and technologies.
Melanie Sarah Sanford is an American chemist, currently the Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She is a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. She has served as an executive editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society since 2021, having been an associate editor of the since 2014.
Bernard Lucas "Ben" Feringa is a Dutch synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogeneous catalysis.
Dennis P. Curran is an American organic chemist and a professor of chemistry at University of Pittsburgh known for his research in the fields of organic chemistry, radical chemistry, and fluorous chemistry.
Clark Landis is an American chemist, whose research focuses on organic and inorganic chemistry. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was awarded the ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry in 2010, and is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
William B. Tolman an American inorganic chemist focusing on the synthesis and characterization of model bioinorganic systems, and organometallic approaches towards polymer chemistry. He has served as Editor in Chief of the ACS journal Inorganic Chemistry, and as a Senior Investigator at the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers. Tolman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.
T. Don Tilley is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Paul James Chirik is an American chemist known for his work in sustainable chemistry using Earth-abundant metals like iron, cobalt, and nickel to surpass the performance of more exotic elements traditionally used in catalysis. He is the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry and chair of the chemistry department at Princeton University.
Suzanne A. Blum is an American professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Blum works on mechanistic chemistry, most recently focusing on borylation reactions and the development of single-molecule and single-particle fluorescence microscopy to study organic chemistry and catalysis. She received the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 2023.
Alan S. Goldman is an American chemist and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Goldman's research area is homogeneous catalysis with emphasis on C-H activation.
Benjamin List is a German chemist who is one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Cologne. He co-developed organocatalysis, a method of accelerating chemical reactions and making them more efficient. He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with David MacMillan "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis".
Viktoria Däschlein-Gessner is a German chemist who is the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry II at Ruhr University Bochum. Her research considers organometallic chemistry and catalysis. She has developed ylidic ligands to stabilise reactive main group compounds.
Marcial Moreno-Mañas. was a full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He made prominent contributions with his research works in the fields of organometallic, heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry, and also had an excellent reputation as scientific advisor in the Spanish chemistry landscape.
Debabrata Maiti is an Indian scientist specializing in organometallic chemistry and bioinspired catalysis and serving as Professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the prestigious Indian national award for excellence in scientific research, for Chemical Sciences for the year 2022 for his significant contributions to developing transition metal catalysis for transforming organic molecules to prepare value-added materials by site-selective functionalization, leading impact on agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals industry.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)