Henry Rapoport (November 16, 1918 – March 6, 2002) was an internationally renowned organic chemist and Professor 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 ...

. He is widely recognized for his work in the development of the chemical synthesis of biologically important compounds and pharmaceuticals. Henry Rapoport obtained a B.S. in chemistry in 1940, an M.S. in chemistry in 1941, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1943, each from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He then worked at Heyden Chemical Corporation and 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 ...

for several years. In 1946, he became a professor at UC Berkeley where he remained for the rest of his career. In 1989, he retired but continued his research as professor

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

until his death from pneumonia in 2002. He was particularly noted for the total synthesis of heterocyclic drugs and

natural product A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical syn ...

s, including porphyrins, camptothecin,

saxitoxin Saxitoxin (STX) is a potent neurotoxin and the best-known paralytic shellfish toxin (PST). Ingestion of saxitoxin by humans, usually by consumption of shellfish contaminated by toxic algal blooms, is responsible for the illness known as paralytic ...

, psoralens, antibiotics, antitumor compounds, and

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

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 such as

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

codeine Codeine is an opiate and prodrug of morphine mainly used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhea. It is also commonly used as a recreational drug. It is found naturally in the sap of the opium poppy, ''Papaver somniferum''. It is typically use ...

, and hydromorphone. His research led to the publication over 400 papers and 33 patents. His discoveries were the scientific foundation for numerous companies that Rapoport helped to start including HRI Research, HRI Associates, Advanced Genetics Research Institute,

Cerus Corporation Cerus Corporation is an American multinational biotechnology company headquartered in Concord, California that develops and provides a treatment system to pathogen-reduce human blood products for the healthcare industry. History In the mid ...

, ChemQuip, and Oncologic. In his honor, UC Berkeley has established the Henry Rapoport Endowed Chair in Organic Chemistry, currently held by

John F. Hartwig John F. Hartwig is an American organometallic chemist who holds the position of Henry Rapoport Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. His laboratory traditionally focuses on developing transition metal-catalyzed reacti ...

. Daniel E. Levy dedicated his book ''Arrow Pushing in Organic Chemistry: An Easy Approach to Understanding Reaction Mechanisms'' to Henry Rapoport.

Major awards

1955

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

1966- 1967 Miller Research Professorship, University of California Berkeley 1972 Research Achievement Award in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry from the

Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

1985 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from 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 d ...

1988 Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products from the American Chemical Society
1989 Distinguished Hope Scholar Award from Hope College
1992 Research Achievement Award from the

American Society of Pharmacognosy The American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) is a scientific society that promotes the growth and development of pharmacognosy through presentation of research achievements and publication of meritorious research. ASP was founded in 1959 as an out ...

1997 Berkeley Citation from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

References

UC Berkeley press releaseGuide to the Henry Rapoport Papers
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapoport, Henry 20th-century American chemists University of California, Berkeley faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni 1918 births 2002 deaths