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Synthesis and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nature Chemistry volume 9, pages 925–929 (2017)Cite this article

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The question often arises as to who may have deserved a Nobel Prize but was not awarded one. Rarely is this discussion extended to who should have received more than one Nobel Prize, but in the field of organic synthesis there are some compelling candidates.

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Figure 1

HUP WOODWARD, ROBERT BURNS (8),OLVWORK727971. HARVARD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Figure 2: R. B. Woodward's published achievements in three areas of organic chemistry as a function of time: structure determinations (in red), total syntheses (in blue), and structure and mechanism 'rules' (in green).
Figure 3: E. J. Corey's number of publications reached a maximum in the mid-1980s.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks E. J. Corey, R. Hoffmann, and K. C. Nicolaou for helpful discussions and K. Donald for technical assistance.

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  1. Jeffrey I. Seeman is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, Virginia 23173, USA,

    Jeffrey I. Seeman

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Correspondence to Jeffrey I. Seeman.

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Seeman, J. Synthesis and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Nature Chem 9, 925–929 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2864

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