This year’s Linus Pauling Medal was awarded to Stephen L. Buchwald, Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, at a symposium and banquet on 11 October, 2014, at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA.

The prize is awarded annually by the Puget Sound, Oregon, and Portland Sections of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and recognizes “outstanding contributions to chemistry meriting national and international recognition”.

Stephen L. Buchwald was born in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his Sc.B. degree from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University,  Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1982. His doctoral research with Jeremy R. Knowles concerned the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer reactions. He then was a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech with Professor Robert H. Grubbs. In 1984, he began as an assistant professor of chemistry at MIT. After being promoted to associate and full professor, Buchwald was named the Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry in 1997.

Among many other honors, Professor Buchwald has received the Award in Organometallic Chemistry from ACS, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Distinguished Achievement Award, the the Gustavus J. Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest, and the Arthur C. Cope Award.

In 2000, he was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2008 member of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves as a consultant to a number of companies and is associate editor of Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis.

Buchwald’s research combines elements of organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry and organometallic chemistry to devise catalytic processes of use in solving problems of fundamental importance.

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Selected Publications:

• Highly Selective Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Secondary Alkylzinc Reagents with Heteroaryl Halides,
  Yang Yang, Katrin Niedermann, Chong Han, Stephen L. Buchwald,
  Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 4638–4641.
  DOI: 10.1021/ol502230p
• Mild Pd-Catalyzed Aminocarbonylation of (Hetero)Aryl Bromides with a Palladacycle Precatalyst,
  Stig D. Friis, Troels Skrydstrup, Stephen L. Buchwald,
  Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 4296–4299.
  DOI: 10.1021/ol502014b
• Catalysts for Suzuki−Miyaura Coupling Processes:  Scope and Studies of the Effect of Ligand Structure,
  Timothy E. Barder, Shawn D. Walker, Joseph R. Martinelli, Stephen L. Buchwald,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 4685–4696.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja042491j
• Highly Active Palladium Catalysts for Suzuki Coupling Reactions,
  John P. Wolfe, Robert A. Singer, Bryant H. Yang, Stephen L. Buchwald,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 9550–9561.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja992130h
• Rational Development of Practical Catalysts for Aromatic Carbon−Nitrogen Bond Formation,
  John P. Wolfe, Seble Wagaw, Jean-François Marcoux, Stephen L. Buchwald,
  Acc. Chem. Res. 1998, 31, 805–818.
  DOI: 10.1021/ar9600650