Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards: Naoto Chatani

Sponsor: Arthur C. Cope Fund

Citation: For the development of transition-metal-catalyzed reactions for the activation and functionalization of traditionally inert bonds.

Current position: professor, Osaka University

Education: B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., organic chemistry, Osaka University

Chatani on his scientific role model and why: “Professor Shinji Murai had a great impact on my thinking and my approach to solving research problems. He instilled in me the importance of originality in research. His advice was to not be involved in research that is obvious to other people, but rather to focus my attention on research that no one has ever thought of.”

What his colleagues say: “Professor Chatani is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization. He has developed a variety of new transformations involving the activation of unreactive bonds, based on new concepts for transition-metal-mediated bond activation. Importantly, many other groups have subsequently adopted professor Chatani’s pioneering methods to develop new transformations.”—Melanie Sanford, University of Michigan

Please send announcements of awards to l_wang@acs.org.