Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 will be awarded today to three scientists: Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock. They were jointly recognized "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis."

Yves Chauvin was a French chemist who was born in Louvain, Belgium, in 1930. He studied chemistry at the École Supérieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon and received his Ph.D. from the University of Strasbourg in 1965. Chauvin spent his entire career at the French oil company Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP).

Robert H. Grubbs was an American chemist who was born in Winchester, Kentucky, in 1942. He studied chemistry at Florida State University and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968. Grubbs is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology from 1978.

Richard R. Schrock was an American chemist who was born in Berne, Indiana, in 1945. He studied chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, and received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. Schrock is a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1980.

The metathesis reaction is a powerful tool for organic synthesis that allows for the controlled formation and cleavage of carbon-carbon bonds. The development of this method has had a major impact on the pharmaceutical, materials, and agrochemical industries.