Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods: Bruce H. Lipshutz

Sponsor: Purdue Borane Research Fund and the Herbert C. Brown Award Endowment

Citation: For more than 30 years of contributions of reagents and methodologies, many of which are commercially available and routinely used in synthetic organic chemistry.

Current position: professor of chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara

Education: B.A., chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton; M.S., chemistry, Yale University; Ph.D., chemistry, Yale University

Lipshutz on his biggest research challenge: “My greatest challenge in research still lies ahead: to convince the community, through our ongoing program in green chemistry, that chemistry done today greatly impacts our world of tomorrow; that we must have a more futuristic view of how we do synthesis. We are responsible for the resources consumed, and the waste created, as we practice our trade. For example, imagine the time when we no longer have access to metals, such as palladium, that are used today without attention to their endangered status? What then?”

What his colleagues say: “Overall, over his 35-plus-year career, Lipshutz has consistently applied his creative ability to the development of new, and above all practical, synthetic methods whose success is evident in their commercial availability and widespread application by the community.”—David Crich, Wayne State University