Nobel Laureate Ei-ichi Negishi, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, celebrates his 80th birthday on July 14, 2015.

Professor Negishi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 together with Richard F. Heck and Akira Suzuki for “palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”. He developed the eponymous coupling reaction of organic halides or triflates with organozinc compounds.

Ei-ichi Negishi was born in Hsinking, now Changchun, China. In 1958, he graduated from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and became a research chemist at Teijin, Japan. In 1960, he then obtained a Fulbright Scholarship and went to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, as a graduate student. Negishi obtained his Ph.D. there in 1963 under the supervision of Allan R. Day. In 1966, he became a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University, USA. In 1972, he went on to become Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, USA, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1978. Negishi went back to Purdue University as Full Professor in 1979. In 1999, he was named the Inaugural Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.

Among many other honors, Ei-ichi Negishi has recived the the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 1996, the Humboldt Senior Researcher Award in 1998, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship in 2000, the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and several honorary doctorates. Professor Negishi is a member of the Honorary Board of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, and the journal has prepared a virtual special issue to celebrate the occasion..

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Selected Publications

• Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiral Isotopomers of 1-Alkanols by a ZACA-Cu-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Protocol,
  Shiqing Xu, Akimichi Oda, Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 16060–16064.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201405053
• Pd- and Ni-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions in the synthesis of organic electronic materials,
  Shiqing Xu, Eun Hoo Kim, Alexander Wei, Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 2014, 15, 044201.
  DOI: 10.1088/1468-6996/15/4/044201
• Highly enantioselective synthesis of γ-, δ-, and ε-chiral 1-alkanols via Zr-catalyzed asymmetric carboalumination of alkenes (ZACA)-Cu- or Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling,
  S. Xu, A. Oda, H. Kamada, E.-i. Negishi,
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2014, 111, 8368–8373.
  DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1401187111
• Widely Applicable Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure Tertiary Alkyl-Containing 1-Alkanols by Zirconium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Carboalumination of Alkenes and Palladium- or Copper-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling,
  Shiqing Xu, Ching-Tien Lee, Guangwei Wang, Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Chem. Asian J. 2013, 8, 1829–1835.
  DOI: 10.1002/asia.201300311
• Magical Power of Transition Metals: Past, Present, and Future (Nobel Lecture),
  Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 6738–6764.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201101380
• Transition Metal-Catalyzed Organometallic Reactions that Have Revolutionized Organic Synthesis,
  Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 2007, 80, 233–257.
  DOI: 10.1246/bcsj.80.233
• A Convenient and Genuine Equivalent to HZrCp₂Cl Generated in Situ from ZrCp₂Cl₂−DIBAL-H,
  Zhihong Huang, Ei-ichi Negishi,
  Org. Lett. 2006, 8, 3675–3678.
  DOI: 10.1021/ol061202o
• Handbook of Organopalladium Chemistry for Organic Synthesis,
  Ei-ichi Negishi (ed.)
  John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
  DOI: 10.1002/0471212466

 

Also of Interest

• Ei-ichi Negishi on his Research and Life,
  Richard Threlfall,
  ChemViews Mag. 2013.
  DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201300100
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry,
  ChemViews Mag. 2010.
  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010 was awarded to Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi along with Richard Heck and Akira Suzuki
• Virtual special issue of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry celebrating Ei-ichi Negishi’s 80th birthday