Professor Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, has been awarded the Paracelsus Prize 2014 by the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS). The award was presented at the SCS Fall Meeting 2014 in Zurich on September 11.

Professor Schrock is honored for for his seminal work in synthetic and mechanistic organo-transition metal chemistry. The Paracelsus Prize is awarded every two years to an internationally outstanding chemist for his or her lifetime achievements and is the highest honor of the SCS.

Richard R. Schrock studied chemistry at the University of Calfornia, Riverside, USA, and obtained his PhD under the supervision of John A. Osborn at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1971. After one year as a postdoctoral researcher with Jack Lewis at the University of Cambridge, he joined the Central Research and Development Department of DuPont. In 1975, he joined the faculty at MIT, where he is currently Frederick G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry.

Among many other honors, Professor Schrock has received the ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry, an Alexander von Humboldt Award, the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry, and the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society (GDCh). In 2005 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Y. Chauvin and R. H. Grubbs for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a foreign member of the Royal Society.

His current research interests include the synthesis of molybdenum and tungsten alkylidene complexes and application of olefin metathesis reactions in organic and polymer chemistry.

Selected Publications:

• Rational Design of Highly Active “Hybrid” Phosphine–Phosphinite Pincer Iridium Catalysts for Alkane Metathesis,
  Agnieszka J. Nawara-Hultzsch, Jason D. Hackenberg, Benudhar Punji, Carolyn Supplee, Thomas J. Emge, Brad C. Bailey, Richard R. Schrock, Maurice Brookhart, Alan S. Goldman,
  ACS Catal. 2013, 3, 2505–2514.
  DOI: 10.1021/cs400624c
• Synthesis of a TREN in Which the Aryl Substituents are Part of a 45 Atom Macrocycle,
  Matthew F. Cain, William P. Forrest, Jr., Dmitry V. Peryshkov, Richard R. Schrock, Peter Müller,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 15338–15341.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja408964g
• Molybdenum and Tungsten Imido Alkylidene Complexes as Efficient Olefin-Metathesis Catalysts,
  Richard R. Schrock, Amir H. Hoveyda
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 4592–4633.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.200300576
• Synthesis of molybdenum imido alkylidene complexes and some reactions involving acyclic olefins,
  Richard R. Schrock, John S. Murdzek, Gui C. Bazan, Jennifer Robbins, Marcello DiMare, Marie O’Regan,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 3875–3886.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja00166a023
• Living ring-opening metathesis polymerization catalyzed by well-characterized transition-metal alkylidene complexes,
  Richard R. Schrock,
  Acc. Chem. Res. 1990, 23, 158–165.
  DOI: 10.1021/ar00173a007