K. C. Nicolaou | |
---|---|
Born | July 5, 1946 Karavas, Cyprus |
Residence | United States |
Fields | Chemist |
Institutions |
University of Pennsylvania ICES-A*STAR, Singapore |
Alma mater | University of London |
Known for | Total synthesis Total synthesis of Taxol |
Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou (Greek: Κυριάκος Κ. Νικολάου) is a Cypriot-American chemist known for the total synthesis of natural products.
Contents |
K. C. Nicolaou was born on July 5, 1946, in Karavas, Cyprus where he grew up and went to school until the age of 18. In 1964, he went to England where he spent two years learning English and preparing to enter University. He studied chemistry at the University of London. (B.Sc., 1969, Bedford College; Ph.D. 1972, University College London, with Professors F. Sondheimer and P. J. Garratt). In 1972, he moved to the United States and, after postdoctoral appointments at Columbia University (1972-1973, Professor T. J. Katz) and Harvard University (1973-1976, Professor E. J. Corey), he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania where he became the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry. While at Penn, he won the prestigious Sloan Fellowship.
In 1989, he started at the University of California, San Diego, where he is Professor of Chemistry, and The Scripps Research Institute where he is the Darlene Shiley Professor of Chemistry, and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry. In 1996, he was appointed Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs Professor of Chemical Biology in The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. Since 2005, he has been directing Chemical Synthesis Laboratory @ ICES-A*STAR, Singapore.
Nicolaou is active in the field of organic chemistry with research interests natural product synthesis and total synthesis. He is responsible for the synthesis of many complex molecules found in nature such as Taxol in the Taxol total synthesis and vancomycin.
He is also the co-author of three popular books on total synthesis:
Additionally, he authored or co-authored several other books:
K. C. Nicolaou has received numerous awards and honors including: