Nobel Prize 2001
William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, and K. Barry Sharpless
Who
William S. Knowles
Born: 1 June 1917 in Taunton, MA, USA
Died: 13 June 2012 in Chesterfield, MO, USA
Attended Harvard, earned his PhD in 1942 at Columbia University
- Field: Industrial chemistry, organic chemistry
- Was retired at the time of the award
Interesting Fact: He looks like an older Lincoln Chafee.
Ryoji Noyori
Born: 3 September 1938 in Kobe, Japan
Earned his PhD in 1967 at Kyoto University
Field: Industrial chemistry, organic chemistry
Was Director of the Research Center for Materials Science at Nagoya University in Japan when awarded
- Interesting Fact: His motivation to get into chemistry was to help post war Japan.
K. Barry Sharpless
K. Barry Sharpless
Born: 28 April 1941, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Field: industrial chemistry, organic chemistry
Was a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in California at the time of the award
Interesting Fact: Many scientists have said that Sharpless' discovery is the most important in the molecule creation field in the last few decades.
What
- Knowles built upon the work of previous researchers, and created a process that produced 15% more of the desired molecule form.
- This was done by using a transition metal with chiral properties (see visual) to give nonchiral molecule building material, chiral properties after reaction.
- Noyori built upon Knowles' work, creating new catalysts (substances that increase the speed of a chemical reaction) such as BINAP by optimizing Knowles' creation as well as experimenting with new transition metals.
- Some of his catalysts were able to produce 100% more of the desired molecule form.
- Sharpless created chiral catalysts for a different type of reaction using transition metals such as titanium, allowing scientists to build more complex molecules that could do more.
For example, your left hand can't fit into a right hand glove and vise versa. In medicine, the other version of the molecule could cause unintended side effects, which is why the work of these men was so important.
Picture from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Chirality_with_hands.svg
Why
- These men were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001 for their work on chirally catalyzed reactions.
- Mirror reactions can produce two molecules made up of the same atoms but one of the two molecules can be harmful in some way or another
- These three men discovered new catalyst driven reactions that created more of the desired molecule to be created.
- This discovery advanced the medical field by allowing the creation of lots of any desired molecule.
- Such processes were used to produce large amounts of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical products.
- This did not challenge any previous discoveries but instead helped to build the knowledge of synthesization reactions.