Joseph Chatt Award 2009/2010 Winner

John Hartwig 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

In recognition of his highly original research in organometallic catalysis that has changed organic synthesis, has provided effective catalysts for functionalisation of alkanes and arenes, and has offered a mechanistic understanding of these reactions.

John Hartwig delivered a lecture at a number of locations throughout the UK in May 2009 including a symposium at the University of York on 6 May.

About the Winner

John F. Hartwig was raised in upstate New York.   He received his B.A. in 1986 from Princeton University, and Ph.D. degree in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley with Robert Bergman and Richard Andersen.   After an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship with Stephen Lippard, he began an appointment at Yale University in 1992, where he was an assistant Professor, associate professor, and in 2004, the Irénée P. duPont Professor of Chemistry.   In August of 2006, Professor Hartwig moved to his current position on the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where is the Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr. Professor of Chemistry. 

Professor Hartwig's research focuses on the discovery and understanding of new reactions catalyzed by transition metal complexes.   He has developed and studied the mechanisms of selective catalytic functionalization of alkanes, the formation of arylamines and aryl ethers from aryl halides, the direct conversion of carbonyl compounds to a-aryl carbonyl derivatives, the catalytic hydroaminations of alkenes, vinylarenes and dienes, and highly enantioselective and site-selective catalysts for the enantioselective amination and etherification of allylic carbonates.   He has received numerous international awards for this work.