Abstract
This lecture will examine several case studies of purported scientific misconduct in chemical research. In each case the speaker will consider the question whether the research represents an example of scientific fraud (work published with the intent to deceive), or may be a case of honest error. The case studies will include reported demonstrations of absolute asymmetric synthesis, total syntheses of complex natural products, and catalytic C-H bond functionalization.
About the speaker
Prof Rick Danheiser received his PhD from Harvard University in 1978. His doctoral research involved the first total synthesis of the diterpene plant growth hormone gibberellic acid. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the same year, and is currently the Arthur C. Cope Professor of Chemistry.
Current investigations in Prof Danheiser’s laboratory involve the development of new strategies for the synthesis of complex molecules and their application in the total synthesis of natural products, and also the development of methods for the synthesis of polycyclic aromatic compounds with unusual spectroscopic and electronic properties. He is the editor-in-chief of Organic Syntheses, has served as an editor of the Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Organic Letters, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Chemistry Letters.
Prof Danheiser received numerous awards including the Stuart Pharmaceutical Award for Excellence in Chemical Research and the Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society. He has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. His educational contributions have been recognized with a MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, the MIT School of Science Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the MIT Graduate Student Council Teaching Award.
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