Karl Barry Sharpless (born April 28, 1941) is an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe ...

and a two-time Nobel laureate in Chemistry known for his work on

stereoselective reactions Enantioselective synthesis, also called asymmetric synthesis, is a form of chemical synthesis. It is defined by IUPAC as "a chemical reaction (or reaction sequence) in which one or more new elements of chirality are formed in a substrate molecul ...

and

click chemistry In chemical synthesis, click chemistry is a class of biocompatible small molecule reactions commonly used in bioconjugation, allowing the joining of substrates of choice with specific biomolecules. Click chemistry is not a single specific reactio ...

. Sharpless was awarded half of the 2001

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

"for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions", and one third of the 2022 prize, jointly with Carolyn R. Bertozzi and Morten P. Meldal, "for the development of click chemistry and

bioorthogonal chemistry The term bioorthogonal chemistry refers to any chemical reaction that can occur inside of living systems without interfering with native biochemical processes. The term was coined by Carolyn R. Bertozzi in 2003. Since its introduction, the concep ...

". Sharpless is the fifth person (in addition to two organizations), to have twice been awarded a Nobel prize, along with

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

John Bardeen John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and engineer. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the ...

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific top ...

and

Frederick Sanger Frederick Sanger (; 13 August 1918 – 19 November 2013) was an English biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. He won the 1958 Chemistry Prize for determining the amino acid sequence of insulin and numerous other pr ...

, and the third to have been awarded two prizes in the same discipline (after Bardeen and Sanger).

Early life and education

Sharpless was born April 28, 1941, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania. His childhood was filled with summers at his family cottage on the

Manasquan River The Manasquan River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 waterway in central New Jersey. It flows from western Monmouth County, beginning in Freehold To ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. This is where Sharpless developed a love for fishing that he would continue throughout his life, spending summers in college working on fishing boats. He graduated from Friends' Central School in 1959, and continued his studies at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, earning an A.B. in 1963. Sharpless originally planned to attend medical school after his undergraduate degree, but his research professor convinced him to continue his education in chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University in 1968 under

Eugene van Tamelen Eugene Earle van Tamelen (July 20, 1925 – December 12, 2009) was an organic chemist who is especially recognized for his contributions to bioorganic chemistry. van Tamelen published five papers while an undergraduate at Hope College. He c ...

. He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University (1968–1969) with James P. Collman, working on organometallic chemistry. Sharpless then moved to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1969–1970), studying enzymology in Konrad E. Bloch's lab.

Academic career

Sharpless was a professor at the

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

(1970–1977, 1980–1990) and Stanford University (1977–1980). While at Stanford, Sharpless discovered Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, which was used to make (+)-disparlure.

Research

Sharpless developed stereoselective oxidation reactions, and showed that the formation of an inhibitor with femtomolar potency can be catalyzed by the enzyme

acetylcholinesterase Acetylcholinesterase (HGNC symbol ACHE; EC 3.1.1.7; systematic name acetylcholine acetylhydrolase), also known as AChE, AChase or acetylhydrolase, is the primary cholinesterase in the body. It is an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of acety ...

, 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 was awarded a half-share of the

for his work on chirally catalyzed

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a ...

reactions (

Sharpless epoxidation The Sharpless epoxidation reaction is an enantioselective chemical reaction to prepare 2,3-epoxyalcohols from primary and secondary allylic alcohols. The oxidizing agent is ''tert''-butyl hydroperoxide. The method relies on a catalyst formed fr ...

Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation (also called the Sharpless bishydroxylation) is the chemical reaction of an alkene with osmium tetroxide in the presence of a chiral quinine ligand to form a vicinal diol. The reaction has been applied to alk ...

Sharpless oxyamination The Sharpless oxyamination (often known as Sharpless aminohydroxylation) is the chemical reaction that converts an alkene to a vicinal amino alcohol. The reaction is related to the Sharpless dihydroxylation, which converts alkenes to vicinal dio ...

). The other half of the year's Prize was shared between

William S. Knowles William Standish Knowles (June 1, 1917 – June 13, 2012) was an American chemist. He was born in Taunton, Massachusetts. Knowles was one of the recipients of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He split half the prize with Ryōji Noyori for thei ...

and Ryōji Noyori (for their work on stereoselective

hydrogenation Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate org ...

). The term "

" was coined by Sharpless in 1998, and was first fully described by Sharpless, Hartmuth Kolb, and M.G. Finn at

The Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

in 2001. This involves a set of highly selective, exothermic reactions which occur under mild conditions; the most successful example is the

azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition The azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition is a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between an azide and a terminal or internal alkyne to give a 1,2,3-triazole. Rolf Huisgen was the first to understand the scope of this organic reaction. American chemist K ...

to form 1,2,3-triazoles. , Sharpless has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

of 180 according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

and of 124 according to

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

Awards and honors

Sharpless is a two-time Nobel Laureate. He is a recipient of the 2001 and 2022

for his work on "chirally catalysed oxidation reactions", and "click chemistry", respectively. In 2019, Sharpless was awarded the

Priestley medal The Priestley Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of chemistry. Established in 1922, the award is named after Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen ...

, the American Chemical Society's highest honor, for "the invention of catalytic, asymmetric oxidation methods, the concept of click chemistry and development of the copper-catalyzed version of the azide-acetylene cycloaddition reaction.". He is Distinguished University Professor at

Kyushu University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Desig ...

. He holds honorary degrees from the

KTH Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technol ...

(1995),

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

(1995), Catholic University of Louvain (1996) and

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the c ...

(1999).

Personal life

Sharpless married Jan Dueser in 1965 and they have three children. He was blinded in one eye during a lab accident in 1970 where an NMR tube exploded, shortly after he arrived at MIT as an assistant professor. After this accident, Sharpless stresses "there's simply never an adequate excuse for not wearing safety glasses in the laboratory ''at all times''."

References

External links

K. Barry Sharpless at The Scripps Research Institute
* including the Nobel Lecture December 8, 2001 ''The Search for New Chemical Reactivity'' and the award 2022 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpless, Karl Barry 1941 births Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 21st-century American chemists American Nobel laureates Dartmouth College alumni Harvard University alumni Nobel laureates in Chemistry Multiple Nobel laureates with multiple Nobel awards Organic chemists Scientists from Philadelphia Stanford University alumni Scripps Research faculty Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates Stereochemists Friends' Central School alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty