Clayton Heathcock is an

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J. ...

, Professor of Chemistry, and Dean of the College of Chemistry at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Professor Heathcock is well known for his accomplishments in the synthesis of complex polycyclic natural products and for his contributions to the chemistry community. In 1995 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Clayton Heathcock received his B.Sc. in chemistry in 1958 from Abilene Christian University and a Ph.D in organic chemistry in 1963 from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

. His graduate work was carried out under the direction of Alfred Hassner and dealt with the synthesis of steroidal heterocycles. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with

Gilbert Stork Gilbert Stork (December 31, 1921 – October 21, 2017) was an organic chemist. For a quarter of a century he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Columbia University. He is known for making significant contributions to the t ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1964, he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley where he is currently Professor in the Graduate School and Dean of the College of Chemistry. Heathcock is known for tackling the chemical synthesis of complex, polycyclic natural products, often possessing unusual biological activity including ''

Daphniphyllum ''Daphniphyllum'' is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Daphniphyllaceae and was described as a genus in 1826. The genus includes evergreen shrubs and trees mainly native to east and southeast Asia, but also found in the Indian Subconti ...

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s, altohyrtin, zaragozic acid, spongistatins, and many others. He has also developed novel methodology for organic synthesis such as a modification of the Evans

aldol reaction The aldol reaction is a means of forming carbon–carbon bonds in organic chemistry. Discovered independently by the Russian chemist Alexander Borodin in 1869 and by the French chemist Charles-Adolphe Wurtz in 1872, the reaction combines two c ...

. In addition to his research and teaching accomplishments, Clayton Heathcock has contributed to the chemical community by serving as chairman of the Division of Organic Chemistry of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

(ACS), chairman of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Medicinal Chemistry Study Section, chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Stereochemistry, chair of the Chemistry Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Editor-in Chief of the journals

Organic Syntheses ''Organic Syntheses'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1921. It publishes detailed and checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds. A unique feature of the review process is that all of the data and ex ...

and the

Journal of Organic Chemistry ''The Journal of Organic Chemistry'', colloquially known as ''JOC'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal for original contributions of fundamental research in all branches of theory and practice in organic and bioorganic chemistry. It is publi ...

. Clayton Heathcock is the author of several hundred research paper

and a coauthor of the popular college textbook ''Introduction to Organic Chemistry''. Awards that Clayton Heathcock has received include Ernest Guenther Award (ACS) (1986); ACS Award for Creative Work in Organic Synthesis (1990); A.C. Cope Scholar (1990); Prelog Medal, ETH (1991); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991); National Academy of Sciences (1995); Centenary Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry (1996); H. C. Brown Award (ACS) (2002); Paul Gassman Award for Distinguished Service (ACS) (2004).

References

Heathcock's research group homepage
* Andrew Streitwieser, Streitwieser, Andrew; Heathcock, Clayton H., Kosower, Edward M. (1992). ''Introduction to Organic Chemistry'', 4th ed., Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. . 1936 births Living people Abilene Christian University alumni University of Colorado alumni Columbia University faculty UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty 21st-century American chemists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences {{US-chemist-stub