Research topic: Elias James Corey

Elias James Corey 1928-, American organic chemist and educator, b. Methuen, Mass., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. 1948, Ph.D. 1951). He has taught at the Univ. of Illinois (1951-59) and at Harvard, where he is the Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry. Using theoretical principles, he has done pioneering work in stereochemistry and synthetic chemistry, particularly with prostaglandins, macrolide antibiotics, and insect hormones. He formalized the concept of "retrosynthesis" in which intermediates between a complex target molecule and simple commercial chemicals are identified;... Read more