Division News

The 2013 Organic Division Undergraduate Awardees

The Organic Division congratulates the 180 Inaugural Organic Division Undergraduate Awardees. Each awardee has been sent a certificate (personally signed by the Organic Division Chair, Professor Lawrence T. Scott) and a letter detailing how they can obtain free membership in the division.
The division has decided to sponsor this new award program to recognize senior students who display a significant aptitude for organic chemistry and to encourage further interest in the field. To receive the award, Chemistry departments select a top graduating senior student majoring in either chemistry or biochemistry who has demonstrated excellence in organic chemistry based on a combination of research experience, coursework and a desire to pursue a career in chemistry.
The list of the 2013 Organic Division Undergraduate Awardees is available here. For more details on the program see the Organic Division Undergraduate Award.

JOC 5K Fun Run/Walk at NOS - New Form

Calling all National Organic Symposium (NOS) participants-take a break from the indoor sessions to explore the breathtaking scenery of Seattle. Whether you're a runner or not, come join us for this low-key social event to enjoy exercise, sightseeing and meeting colleagues in your field. Don't worry about your pace, you will receive a Journal of Organic Chemistry goodie bag and a chance at the grand prize just for participating. This event will occur on the picturesque Burke Gilman trail, located within steps from the University of Washington Campus.
- The first person to cross the finish line wins a $500 travel grant to the 44th NOS
- Participating students & postdocs will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a $500 travel grant to the 44th NOS
The event will take place Tuesday, June 25, 2013 from 6:30 - 8:00 AM on the Burke Gilman Trail **Rain or shine**. For Info see the NOS Page on the 5K Run/Walk. (Note this is now an online application vs. a PDF form, which was not sending the info correctly).

Video Interviews of Organic Chemist-M. Christina White

We are pleased to announce that a second series of video interviews of leaders in our community are going on-line. For the month of May, we are featuring an interview with M. Christina White from the University of Illinois.
The Organic Division and the ACS Innovative Grant program have supported this project, which has been directed by Dr. Jeff Seeman with the aid of extraordinary volunteer work of Tom Lawrence and GroundWorkDesign.
To view all the available interviews, please see: http://www.layingthegroundwork.com/chemists/

Abstracts Separates for the ACS Meeting New Orleans are now Available

Members can now access the abstract separates for the 245th ACS National Meeting to be held in New Orleans (Spring 2013). To access the file, you must be a Division Member. You can download the file (10 MB) from the Organic Division's Meeting Abstract Page. Use your ACS ID to access the page. If you do not have an ACS ID (or remember yours) visit http://www.acs.org , click on "Registering is Easy", and follow the directions to create (or obtain) your ACS ID.

2013-2014 Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowships in Organic Chemistry-Applications are now being accepted

The Division of Organic Chemistry plans to award the 2013-2014 academic year fellowships for Ph.D. students to be held during their third or fourth year of study.

Applicants must meet all of the following criteria: (1) be starting their 3rd or 4th year of Ph. D. studies in Fall 2013, (2) be US citizens or green card holders, and (3) be members of the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry. Applications from women and minorities are especially encouraged.

Application details are available on: http://organicdivision.org/fellowships

All application materials must be received by May 31, 2013. Announcement of the awards will be made in August 2013.

Video Interviews of Organic Chemists-Stephen Hanessian

We are pleased to announce that a second series of video interviews of leaders in our community are going on-line. These will appear, one a month, including Larry Overman, Christina White, and Mike Doyle. This month we are featuring an interview with Prof. Stephen Hanessian from the Université de Montréal and the University of California, Irvine
The Organic Division and the ACS Innovative Grant program have supported this project, which has been directed by Dr. Jeff Seeman with the aid of extraordinary volunteer work of Tom Lawrence and GroundWorkDesign.
To view all the available interviews, please see:http://www.layingthegroundwork.com/chemists/

Thieme Offers Discount to Members

Thieme Chemistry is now offering a 15% discount to Organic Division members on the Science of Synthesis Workbench Edition Cross Coupling and Heck-Type Reactions , a three-volume reference work presenting a critical review of the field and the best metal-catalyzed cross coupling reactions available.
ACS Organic Division member price: $765 per set $255 per volume
See the Members only Book Discount page for details on how to obtain discounts on these and other titles.

The JOC & OL Outstanding Author of the Year Lectureship Awards

The Journal of Organic Chemistry, Organic Letters and the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry are proud to announce Dennis G. Hall and Dale L. Boger as the winners of the inaugural Journal of Organic Chemistry & Organic Letters Outstanding Author of the Year Lectureship Awards. Both authors will be presented with an award at a symposium in their honor at the fall ACS National Meeting, September 8-12, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

JOC Outstanding Author of the Year: Dennis G. Hall, University of Alberta

Dr. Hall was nominated for his work on the direct synthesis of amides by condensation of amines and carboxylic acids. His article describes the development of a highly active catalyst to promote room-temperature condensation of acids and amines. The amidation reaction produces increased yields compared to stoichiometric methods, generates products requiring minimal purification and is tolerant to a variety of functionalized substrates.

Direct Amidation of Carboxylic Acids Catalyzed by ortho-Iodo Arylboronic Acids: Catalyst Optimization, Scope, and Preliminary Mechanistic Study Supporting a Peculiar Halogen Acceleration Effect
Nicolas Gernigon, Raed M. Al-Zoubi and Dennis G. Hall
DOI: 10.1021/jo3013258

OL Outstanding Author of the Year: Dale L. Boger, The Scripps Research Institute

Dr. Boger was nominated for his development of a new method for the direct hydro-functionalization of alkenes. His letter describes an iron-mediated radical functionalization of unactivated alkenes with tolerance to a large variety of substrates. The reaction proceeds exclusively with Markovnikov regioselectivity and has been used to prepare a complex and previously inaccessible natural product analogue.

Iron(III)/NaBH₄-Mediated Additions to Unactivated Alkenes: Synthesis of Novel 20'-Vinblastine Analogues
Erick K. Leggans, Timothy J. Barker, Katharine K. Duncan and Dale L. Boger
DOI: 10.1021/ol300173v

The Fall 2013 Kavli Foundation Emerging Leader in Chemistry Lecture

Martin D. Burke, Ph.D., M.D., has been chosen from a slate of outstanding young chemists nominated by 11 ACS Divisions to present this plenary lecture at the Fall ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis on Monday, September 9, 2013.
Beginning in 2013, one Kavli Emerging Leader Lecture is being presented as a plenary event at each ACS National Meeting by an outstanding chemical scientist who is less than 10 years past receipt of his/her Ph.D. and is under 40 years old. The lecturers are distinguished younger scientists who are highly regarded by their peers for significant contributions to areas of chemistry or related multidisciplinary areas of chemistry.
Dr. Burke, an associate professor of chemistry and an Early Career Scientist in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was nominated by the Division of Organic Chemistry. His lecture will lay out a bold and transformative vision for systematizing and fully automating the process of small molecule synthesis. We congratulate Dr. Burke!

National Organic Chemistry Symposium (NOS) – Advance registration ends May 27th

The National Organic Chemistry Symposium will be held at the University of Washington in Seattle, June 23-27. The symposium includes thirteen plenary lectures, plus the 2013 Roger Adams Awardee David Evans, and four nights of poster sessions, all in one of the most spectacular cities in country. The afternoons are free for exploring Seattle. Free buses will run every afternoon to Pike Place Market (home of Starbucks) and Seattle Center (where you will find the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, the Duck Tours, and the Monorail). Another set of buses will take attendees to the famous Red Hook Brewery and dozens of marvelous Washington State Wineries. And don't forget the 5k Fun Run, with prizes!.
On May 27th the prices for registration will rise. This is also the deadline for poster abstracts (poster abstracts will still be accepted after that date but will not be included in the booklet).
Check it all out at http://nationalorganicsymposium.org

Fall 2012 DOC Newsletter

The Fall 2012 Newsletter is now available online here as a PDF file. It will arrive in Organic Division member's mailbox over the next few weeks. Please make sure that ACS has your up to date physical mailing address so that you can be sure to receive the newsletter.

Speakers for the 43rd NOS in 2013

The speakers for the 43rd National Organic Symposium (NOS) have been selected. They are:

Erick M. Carreira	ETH Zürich
François Diederich	ETH Zürich
Joanna S. Fowler	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Shana O. Kelley	University of Toronto
Paul Knochel	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Eiichi Nakamura	The University of Tokyo
William R. Roush	The Scripps Research Institute, Florida
Richmond Sarpong	University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence T. Scott	Boston College
Hanadi F. Sleiman	McGill University
Paul J. Coleman	Merck Research Laboratories
Peter Wipf	University of Pittsburgh
Jin-Quan Yu	The Scripps Research Institute - La Jolla

None of the speakers above have spoken at a prior NOS, which is is the premier event sponsored by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society to highlight recent advances in organic chemistry. The symposium will take place on the Campus of University of Washington in Seattle from Sunday June 23rd thru Thursday June 26th, 2013. For more details on the meeting see the NOS webpage.

The Division of Organic Chemistry announces the the 2012-13 Graduate Fellows

The 2012-13 Division of Organic Chemistry Fellows are:

Michael Joseph Ardolino	Boston College
Adam Goetz	University of California, Los Angeles
Aaron T. Herrmann	University of California, Santa Barbara
Jeffrey C. Holder	California Institute of Technology
Alison Metz	University of Pennsylvania
Rebecca Murphy	University of California, Berkeley
John Duy Nguyen	Boston Univeristy
Bradley D. Rose	University of Oregon

Short Biographies of the 2012-13 Fellows and their essays are available here.

We gratefully acknowledge the sponsors (Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Merck, Organic Reactions, Organic Syntheses, and the DOC Troyansky Endowed Fellowship Fund), and thank Organic Letters for the opportunity to publish their biographical sketches.

The Division has awarded over 380 graduate fellowships under this program since 1981 (See the comprehensive list of the award winners).

We welcome contacts from companies, individuals and organizations interested in sponsoring annual fellowships or wishing to endow a fellowship. There are always many more deserving applicants than there are fellowships! Please contact Professor Melanie Sanford (mssanfor@umich.edu); Tel: (734) 615-0451) if you would like to sponsor a fellowship.

Follow the Organic Division on Twitter

The Organic Division is looking to use more social media to contact members and the organic chemistry community. Thus, we have recently created a Twitter feed (@ACSorganic): https://twitter.com/ACSorganic

The Organic Division is now on Facebook

In an effort to reach a wider audience, the Organic Division is looking to use more social media to contact members and the organic chemistry community. Thus, we encourage you to "Like" our recently created Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/ACSOrganicDivision

Division wins an ACS ChemLuminary Award

At the the 14th Annual ChemLuminary Awards celebration, ORGN was one of five Technical Divisions to receive an award. The citation reads: "The Division of Organic Chemistry annually awards summer undergraduate research fellowships to outstanding organic chemistry students. The fellowships provide support for undergraduates to carry out independent research at their respective colleges/universities. Students then have the opportunity to visit the Pfizer Global R&D Center and present their research."
The ceremony was held on August 21 in conjunction with the 244th ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia. Awards are made to to recognize local sections, regional meetings, and divisions that receive accolades for their tireless efforts and work in promoting chemistry and the chemical sciences during 2011.
This is the fourth ACS ChemLuminary award bestowed on the Division since 1999.

The National Organic Symposium

The National Organic Chemistry Symposium is the premier event sponsored by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society to highlight recent advances in organic chemistry. The 43rd national Organic Symposium will be held on the Campus of University of Washington in Seattle from Sunday June 23 thru Thursday June 26th, 2013.The speakers and latest details can be found on the NOS Website.

Travel Awards

The Division is offering Travel Awards for Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students, and Faculty at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions for travel to ACS National Meetings. Application deadlines for National Meetings will typically be November 15th for the Spring meeting and May 1st for the Fall Meeting. To learn more, see the Organic Division's Travel Award page.

Videos: Eminent Organic Chemists, The Human Side

Who are Ron Breslow, Madeleine Joullie, K. C. Nicolaou, and Peter Stang? Of course, we know these as eminent organic chemists. But who are they as human beings? What do they have to say about such topics as: What's the best advice they've ever received? What does "balance" and "excellence" mean to them? How do they choose their projects? What is the source of their energy? What brings them the greatest joy? Have they ever been afraid and of what? Who are their heroes? These and other insights are now revealed as part of a series of short video produced as part of ORGN's Centennial celebrations in 2008. Chemical historian Jeffrey I. Seeman conducted a series of video interviews with 10 prominent organic chemists. One goal of these interviews was to reveal the human side of these scientists. Another goal was to contribute to the archives of organic chemistry. And, according to Seeman, another goal is "simply, to have fun. To enjoy and explore our range of values, breadth of experiences, and wonderful complexity as human beings." The videos can be seen at: http://www.layingthegroundwork.com/chemists/

Contact with Organic Division Members

The Secretary of the Organic Division occasionally sends email messages to the membership to announce certain events and important due dates. To stay informed of important division activities, members are encouraged to frequently check the division website, subscribe to the RSS feed (See the RSS Feed Information page for more details), and utilize to the division calendar.

Click here to Subscribe to this Feed