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Born on this day
Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr.
Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr. was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
28th week in year
12 July 2018

Important personalitiesBack

Elias James Corey12.7.1928

Wikipedia (04 Jul 2013, 15:29)
Elias James "E.J." Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist. In 1990 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis. Regarded by many as one of the greatest living chemists, he has developed numerous synthetic reagents, methodologies, and has advanced the science of organic synthesis considerably.


Biography

E.J. Corey was born to Christian Lebanese immigrants in Methuen, Massachusetts, 50 km (31 mi) north of Boston. His mother changed his name to "Elias" to honor his father who died eighteen months after the birth of his son. His widowed mother, brother, two sisters and an aunt and uncle all lived together in a spacious house, struggling through the depression. He attended Catholic elementary school and Lawrence Public High School.

Corey entered MIT in 1945. At MIT, he earned both a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. at age 22 in 1951. Both degrees were in chemistry. Immediately thereafter, he joined the faculty of University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where he became a Full Professor of Chemistry in 1956 at the age of 27. He was initiated as a member of the Zeta Chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma at the University of Illinois in 1952. In 1959, he moved to Harvard University, where he is currently an emeritus professor of organic chemistry with an active Corey Group research program. He chose to work in organic chemistry because of "its intrinsic beauty and its great relevance to human health". He has been an advisor to Pfizer for more than 50 years.

He and his wife, Claire, were married in 1961. They have three children, David, John, and Susan and two granddaughters, Sara and Kate Corey. Currently, he and his wife, Claire, live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1988, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. He was awarded the American Chemical Society's greatest honor, the Priestley Medal, in 2004.


Awards

E.J. Corey has received more than 40 major awards including the Linus Pauling Award (1973), Franklin Medal (1978), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1986), National Medal of Science (1988), Japan Prize (1989), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1990), Roger Adams Award (1993), and the Priestley Medal (2004). He was inducted into the Alpha Chi Sigma Hall of Fame in 1998. As of 2008, he has been awarded 19 honorary degrees from universities around the world including Oxford University (UK), Cambridge University (UK), and National Chung Cheng University.

   
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