Dieter Enders, a German organic chemist and developer of Enders reagent, passed away on June 29, 2019.
Enders pioneered the field of asymmetric synthesis. He developed a stereoselective alkylation reaction via hydrazones. The pyrrolidine-derived, chiral auxiliaries SAMP/RAMP used in this reaction also became known by the name Enders reagent. His research interests included new synthetic methods with organometallics, organocatalysis, as well as the synthesis of natural products and bioactive compounds.
Dieter Enders was born in Butzbach, Germany, in 1946. He studied chemistry and received his Ph.D. from the University of Gießen, Germany, in 1974. Afterward, he joined the group of E. J. Corey at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, for postdoctoral studies. He moved back to Gießen to obtain his habilitation in 1979. Soon after, he became Professor for Organic Chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany. Since 1985, he was Full Professor and Director at the RWTH Aachen, Germany.
Among numerous other honors, Dieter Enders received the Leibniz Prize from the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) in 1993, the Emil Fischer Medal from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2002 and the American Chemical Society (ACS) Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 2008. In 2014, he was awarded the Ryoji Noyori Prize from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry of Japan for his achievements in asymmetric synthetic chemistry.
Selected Publications
- N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Catalyzed Quadruple Domino Reactions: Asymmetric Synthesis of Cyclopenta[c]chromenones,
Qiang Liu, Xiang‐Yu Chen, Rakesh Puttreddy, Kari Rissanen, Dieter Enders,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57(52).
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201810402 - Organocatalysis by N-Heterocyclic Carbenes,
Dieter Enders, Oliver Niemeier, Alexander Henseler,
Chem. Rev. 2007, 107, 5606–5655.
https://doi.org/10.1021/cr068372z - Asymmetric Organocatalytic Domino Reactions,
Dieter Enders, Christoph Grondal, Matthias R. M. Hüttl,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 1570–1581.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200603129 - Organocatalytic cascade reactions as a new tool in total synthesis,
Christoph Grondal, Matthieu Jeanty, Dieter Enders,
Nat. Chem. 2010, 2, 167–178.
https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.539 - Control of four stereocentres in a triple cascade organocatalytic reaction,
Dieter Enders, Matthias R. M. Hüttl, Christoph Grondal, Gerhard Raabe,
Nature 2006, 441, 861–863.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04820 - N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalyzed Domino Reactions,
Andre Grossmann, Dieter Enders,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 314–325.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201105415 - Organocatalytic Asymmetric Aza-Michael Additions,
Dieter Enders, Chuan Wang, Jens X. Liebich,
Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 11058–11076.
https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.200902236
