Courtesy Department of Chemistry Photography
Professor Steven V. Ley has received the 2018 Arthur C. Cope Award.
The prize is awarded for achievement in the field of organic chemistry research, and is generally considered one of the highest honours in the field. This is the first time the prize has been given to someone working in the UK.
The purpose of the award is "to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry, the significance of which has become apparent within the five years preceding the year in which the award will be considered.”
The prize is sponsored by the Arthur C. Cope Fund, and has been awarded since 1973 by the American Chemical Society.
The Ley group conducts research in flow chemistry and organic synthesis. It specialises in developing new synthesis methods and applying them to the construction of biologically important molecules. Over the last four years the group has completed the total synthesis of 39 natural products, taking the group total to 140 completed total syntheses. Steve has pioneered the use of immobilized reagents and flow techniques in multi-step organic synthesis, which now incorporates flow chemistry for multistep organic synthesis applications in the Innovative Technology Centre (ITC), a state-of-the-art flow chemistry facility.
Arthur C. Cope was a highly successful and influential organic chemist who is credited with the development of several important chemical reactions which bear his name, including the Cope elimination and the Cope rearrangement.