Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award 2009 winner
University of Manchester
Awarded for his synthetic studies on the bryostatins and phomactins.
About the winner
Jim Thomas read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and studied for his PhD under the supervision of Ian Fleming on stereochemical aspects of the chemistry of halocyclopropanes. He carried out post-doctoral work on the synthesis of trans-cyclo-octenes, with Gordon Whitham in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at Oxford University.
His first independent academic appointment was as a Lecturer at Kings College, London, where he collaborated with Ivor John looking at aspects of the chemistry of penicillanates, and he initiated work on the total synthesis of cytochalasans. In 1979, he returned to Oxford as a University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow of Exeter College, and moved to Manchester as the Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1988.
His work has encompassed the development of new synthetic methods for organic chemistry, notably for remote stereocontrol using allylstannanes and other allylmetal reagents, and the total synthesis of complex, biologically active natural products including cytochalasans, milbemycins, AI-77-B, epothilones and pamamycin 607.
His research has been recognized by the RSC by the award of a Hickinbottom Fellowship, Tilden and Simonsen Lectureships and an industrially sponsored Stereochemistry Award.
He has served as President of the Perkin Division (now the Organic Division) of the RSC and is presently a Regional Editor for Tetrahedron Letters and a member of the Executive Board of Tetrahedron Publications. He is also on the Editorial Board of Science of Synthesis (Houben Weyl) published by Thieme.
