David Milstein
| David Milstein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
4 June 1947 Ulm, Germany |
| Nationality | Israel, United States |
| Fields | Organometallic chemistry |
| Alma mater | The Hebrew University |
| Known for | Metal-mediated activation of chemical bonds. |
David Milstein (born June 4, 1947) is an Israeli chemist best known for his research on metal-mediated activation and functionalization of very strong chemical bonds. He is recipient of the 2012 Israel Prize and the 2016 ENI Award for Protection of the Environment.
Milstein, who immigrated with his family to the newly founded state of Israel at the age of two, was born (1947) in the city of Ulm, in post-war Germany, where his family took refuge after being displaced during the Holocaust. Milstein was first fascinated by chemistry when attending high school in the town of Rehovot where “an enthusiastic, old-fashioned chemistry teacher who didn’t care much about orbitals” inspired him “with vivid, thought-provoking experiments”. Pursuing his interest, Milstein received B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He carried out postdoctoral research in the U.S. at the University of Iowa and at Colorado State University. In 1979, Milstein joined DuPont Central Research & Development in Wilmington, Delaware, where he became a group leader in the homogeneous catalysis area. In 1987, he took up an academic position at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he is now director of the Kimmel Center for Molecular Design and the Israel Matz Professorial Chair of Organic Chemistry.
Milstein has authored Over 320 publications in peer-reviewed journals [1]. He and his coworkers have developed many group 8, 9, and 10 transition-metal complexes with specifically designed ligands that have proven useful to activate strong C-C, C-H, C-F, N-H, and O-H bonds.
The C-C Bond
While a postdoc, Milstein and his adviser, John Kenneth Stille, discovered the Stille reaction for new carbon-carbon bond formation using a palladium catalyst to couple an organic halide with an organotin compound. This reaction is considered a very useful method for new C-C bond formation and is now widely used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. His subsequent research on the C-C bond includes a 1993 publication describing insertion of a rhodium complex into a strong C-C bond using a pincer-type substrate that helps draw the metal center to the hard-to-access C-C bond. This paper is considered a classic for establishing a general strategy for C-C activation in homogeneous systems. Milstein's research focused also on bonds between carbon and other elements. An example is his work on activation of the notoriously inert C-F bond in reactions of fluorinated benzenes with silanes or hydrogen using a rhodium catalyst.
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