Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, passed away on June 6, 2021.
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 is best known for the Negishi coupling, a transition-metal-catalyzed reaction of organic halides or triflates with organozinc compounds. His main areas of work were palladium- or nickel-catalyzed coupling reactions as well as carbometallations of alkenes and alkynes.
Ei-ichi Negishi was born in Hsinking (today’s Changchun, China), Manchukuo, in 1935. In 1958, he graduated from the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he had majored in non-biological sciences and engineering, and became a research chemist at Teijin Limited, Japan. In 1960, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and went to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, as a graduate student. Ei-ichi Negishi obtained his Ph.D. there in 1963 for work in synthetic organic chemistry under the supervision of Allan R. Day.
In 1966, he became a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, where he worked with Herbert C. Brown. In 1972, he joined Syracuse University, NY, USA, as Assistant Professor. Ei-ichi Negishi was promoted to Associate Professor there in 1976. He returned 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 received the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award in 1996, the Humboldt Senior Researcher Award and the American Chemical Society (ACS) Organometallic Chemistry Award in 1998, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship in 2000, the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010, as well as several honorary doctorates. Negishi was a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He also was a member of the Honorary Board of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Selected Publications
- Highly Enantiospecific Borylation for Chiral α-Amino Tertiary Boronic Esters,
Qingqing Qi, Xuena Yang, Xiaoping Fu, Shiqing Xu, Ei-ichi Negishi,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 15138–15142.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201809389 - One-Step Homologation for the Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Deoxypropionates,
Shiqing Xu, Haijun Li, Masato Komiyama, Akimichi Oda, Ei-ichi Negishi,
Chem. Eur. J. 2017, 23, 149–156.
https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201604478 - Zirconium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Carboalumination of Unactivated Terminal Alkenes,
Shiqing Xu, Ei-ichi Negishi,
Acc. Chem. Res. 2016, 49, 2158–2168.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00338 - 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 - Palladium-Catalyzed Alkynylation,
Ei-ichi Negishi, Luigi Anastasia,
Chem. Rev. 2003, 103, 1979–2018.
https://doi.org/10.1021/cr020377i - Handbook of Organopalladium Chemistry for Organic Synthesis,
Ei-ichi Negishi (Ed.)
John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
DOI: 10.1002/0471212466 - Palladium- or Nickel-Catalyzed Cross Coupling. A New Selective Method for Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation,
Eiichi Negishi,
Acc. Chemi. Res. 2002, 15, 340–348.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ar00083a001 - Metal-Promoted Cyclization. 19. Novel Bicyclization of Enynes and Diynes Promoted by Zirconocene Derivatives and Conversion of Zirconabicycles into Bicyclic Enones via Carbonylation,
Ei-ichi Negishi, Steven J. Holmes, James M. Tour, Joseph A. Miller, Fredrik E. Cederbaum, Douglas R. Swanson, Tamotsu Takahashi,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 3336–3346.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00191a035 - Reaction of Zirconocene Dichloride with Alkyllithiums or Alkyl Grignard Reagents as a Convenient Method for Generating a “Zirconocene” Equivalent and its Use in Zirconium-Promoted Cyclization of Alkenes, Alkynes, Dienes, Enynes, and Diynes,
Ei-ichi Negishi, Fredrik E. Cederbaum, Tamotsu Takahashi,
Tetrahedron Lett. 1986, 27, 2829–2832.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(00)84653-5 - Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reaction of Homoallylic or Homopropargylic Organozincs with Alkenyl Halides as a New Selective Route to 1,5-Dienes and 1,5-Enynes,
Ei-ichi Negishi, Louis F. Valente, Makoto Kobayashi,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 3298–3299.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00529a091
Also of Interest
- Interview: Ei-ichi Negishi on his Research and Life,
Richard Threlfall,
ChemistryViews 2013.
https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.201300100 - Nobel Prize in Chemistry,
ChemistryViews 2010.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010 was awarded to Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi along with Richard Heck and Akira Suzuki
