Elias James Corey
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Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist. In 1990 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis.[1] He has developed numerous synthetic reagents, methodologies, and has advanced the science of organic synthesis considerably.
At MIT, he earned both a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1951. Immediately, he joined the faculty of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 1959, he moved to Harvard University, where he is currently an emeritus professor of organic chemistry.
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Major contributions
Reagents
He has developed several new synthetic reagents:
- PCC (pyridinium chlorochromate): widely used for the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes.
- t-Butyldimethylsilyl ether (TBDMS): popular alcohol protecting group.
Methodology
His method for asymmetric reduction of ketones to chiral secondary alcohols using oxazaborolidine/borane (Corey-Bakshi-Shibata reduction (CBS Reduction) [2]) has become popular.
Total syntheses
His 1969 total synthesis of several prostaglandins is considered a classic.[3][4]
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. A second suicide also occurred in his lab although the student was only at Harvard for one week before doing so and was unrelated to 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 was working on one of the most complex natural products and felt enormous pressure to finish the molecule before starting his academic career.
Altom's suicide highlighted the plight of many Ph.D. students in similar situations(?) His case prompted many universities to insist that Ph.D. 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". Anderson went on to promise that students will also have "confidential and seamless access" to psychological counselling services, paid for by the department. However, as of 2004, this access was terminated.
Corey, speaking of the suicide note, states: "[T]hat letter doesn't make sense. At the end, Jason must have been delusional or irrational in the extreme." Corey also is on record as stating that he never questioned Mr. Altom's intellectual contributions. "I did my best to guide Jason as a mountain guide would to guide someone climbing a mountain. I did my best every step of the way," Corey states. "My conscience is clear. Everything Jason did came out of our partnership. We never had the slightest disagreement."
Corey's office at Harvard University is also infamous for the redlight / greenlight on the outside of the door.
Woodward-Hoffmann rules
Recently when awarded the Priestley Medal, E. J. Corey has controversially claimed to have inspired Robert B. Woodward prior to the development of the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. This was rebutted by Roald Hoffmann in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
References
- ^ E. J. Corey, X-M. Cheng, The Logic of Chemical Synthesis, Wiley, New York, 1995, ISBN 0471115940.
- ^ E. J. Corey et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1987, 109, 5551.
- ^ E. J. Corey, N. M. Weinshenker, T. K. Schaaf, W. Huber, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1969, 91, 5675.
- ^ K. C. Nicolaou, E. J. Sorensen, Classics in Total Synthesis, VCH, New York, 1996, ISBN 3527292314.
