2022 Organic Division mid-career Award: Merck, Sharp and Dohme Award Winner
Dr Katherine Wheelhouse, GlaxoSmithKline
Awarded for contributions to the application and industrialisation of chemical catalysis in the pharmaceutical industry in the pursuit of more sustainable synthesis of medicines.
Katherine is a chemist within Drug Substance Development, a multi-functional department at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) that includes chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science groups working collaboratively to develop small molecule drugs.
The department’s accountabilities include determining the best way to construct potential drug molecules, both in terms of the route, i.e., the sequence of chemical intermediates and the process, which is essentially the recipe for each step. This work enables successful scale-up of drug candidates from milligram to multi-kilogram and even tonne scale, and the eventual transfer to manufacturing plants to produce the high-quality active ingredient required for formulation into the final medicine prescribed to the patient.
| Year | Name | Institution | Citation |
| 2021 | Dr Stephen Thomas | University of Edinburgh |
Awarded for the development and creative applications of novel methods to enable catalysis, using organometallic-free activation of first-row transition metal and main-group pre-catalysts. |
| 2020 | Professor Vy Dong | University of California, Irvine |
Awarded for creative applications of metal hydride catalysis to address diverse challenges in organic synthesis, including carbon-carbon activation and cyclic peptide construction. |
| 2019 |
Professor Nicolai Cramer | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne |
Awarded for the development of chiral cyclopentadienyl ligands and Pd(0)-catalysed asymmetric C(sp3)-H activations |
| 2018 | Professor Frank Glorius | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster | Awarded for pioneering contributions on the use of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands in selective arene hydrogenation. |
| 2017 | Professor Phil Baran | The Scripps Research Institute | Awarded for conceptualization and implementation of the "two phase" synthetic strategy in organic chemistry. |
| 2016 | Professor Neil Garg | University of California, Los Angeles | Awarded for breakthroughs in synthetic methodology and exceptional achievements in natural product synthesis. |
| 2015 | Professor Shuli You | Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry | Awarded for the development of catalytic asymmetric dearomatisation reactions opening elegant access routes to complex molecular architectures. |
| 2014 | Professor Andy Smith | University of St. Andrews | For his outstanding contributions to the creative assembly of enantiopure building blocks by organocatalysis. |
| 2013 |
Professor Christina White | University of Illinois | Distinguished for her pioneering work in the development of novel catalysts and concepts for achieving C-H oxidation reactions. |
| 2012 |
Professor Timothy Jamison | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Award for his creative contributions to reaction development and natural-product synthesis, including pioneering work on cascade cyclizations, nickel-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond-forming processes, and flow chemistry. |
| 2011 |
Jonathan Clayden | University of Manchester | Awarded for his remarkable, recent contributions to organic chemistry in the areas of stereochemistry, conformational control, and organolithium chemistry. |
| 2010 |
F Dean Toste | University of California at Berkeley | Awarded for his pioneering work on the chemistry of gold. |
| 2009 |
David Leigh | University of Edinburgh | Awarded for his contributions to directed and templated reactions in organic supramolecular chemistry and the design and synthesis of molecular motors. |
| 2008 - 2009 | Gerald Pattenden | University of Nottingham | Awarded for his outstanding achievements and leadership in the field of natural product synthesis. |
| 2007 | Professor Andrew B Holmes | University of Melbourne | Distinguished for his notable and wide-ranging contributions to the organic chemistry of natural products and of polymeric and electroactive materials. |
| 2005 | Professor Peter Beak | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Distinguished for his contributions to organolithium chemistry, organic reaction mechanisms and asymmetric synthesis. |
| 2003 | Professor Dudley H Williams | University of Cambridge | Distinguished for his extensive contributions to biological chemistry and in particular his determination of the structure and mode of action of vancomycin and related antibiotics. |
| 2000 | Professor K Barry Sharpless | The Scripps Research Institute | Distinguished for his outstanding contributions to the development of asymmetric oxidation reactions. |
| 1998 | Professor Steve V Ley | University of Cambridge | Distinguished for his impressive contributions to the total synthesis of a wide range of complex natural products. |
| 1996 | J-M P Lehn | ||
| 1994 | K C Nicolaou | ||
| 1992 | S L Schreiber | ||
| 1990 | P Potier | ||
| 1988 | R U Lemieux | ||
| 1986 | Sir Derek Barton |
Re-thinking recognition: Science prizes for the modern world
This report is the result of an independent review of our recognition programmes. Our aim in commissioning this review was to ensure that our recognition portfolio continues to deliver the maximum impact for chemical scientists, chemistry and society.