Karl Barry Sharpless

Karl Barry Sharpless (born April 28, 1941) is an American chemist known for his work on stereoselective reactions. He is a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Early years

Sharpless was born April 28, 1941 in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from Friends' Central School in 1959. He continued his studies at Dartmouth College earning a B.A. in 1963 and a Ph.D in chemistry from Stanford University in 1968. He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University (1968–1969) and Harvard University.(1969–1970). He holds honorary degrees from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (1995) Technical University of Munich (1995), Catholic University Louvain, Belgium (1996) and Weselyan University (1999). He was blinded in one eye during a lab accident in 1970, shortly after he arrived at MIT as an assistant professor.

Academic career

Sharpless has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970–1977, 1980–1990) and Stanford University (1977–1980) He currently holds the W. M. Keck professorship in chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute (1990-)

Research

Sharpless developed stereoselective oxidation reactions, and showed that the formation of an inhibitor with femtomolar potency can be catalyzed by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, beginning with an azide and an alkyne. He discovered several chemical reactions which have transformed asymmetric synthesis from science fiction to the relatively routine, including aminohydroxylation, dihydroxylation, and the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation.

In 2001 he won a half-share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation, Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation, Sharpless oxyamination). The other half of the year's Prize was shared between William S. Knowles and Ryōji Noyori (for their work on stereoselective hydrogenation).

He also successfully epoxidized (using racemic tartaric acid) a C-86 Buckminster Fullerene ball, employing p-Cresol as solvent. More recently he has been an important figure in the new field of click chemistry. This involves a set of highly selective, exothermic reactions which occur under mild conditions; the most successful example is the azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition to form 1,2,3-triazoles.

Personal life

Sharpless married Jan Dueser on April 28, 1965. They have three children; Hannah (b. 1976), William (b. 1978), and Isaac (b. 1980).