The Stanley Wawzonek Lectureship

Stanley Wawzonek was born in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. He graduated magna cum lauda with a B.S. degree in chemistry from Brown University in 1935. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1939 from the University of Minnesota. In 1940, Dr. Wawzonek received a National Research Council Fellowship and worked under Dr. C.S. Marvel at the University of Illinois. He served as an instructor at Illinois for two additional years before becoming an instructor of organic chemistry at the University of Tennessee in 1943. The following year he became an assistant professor of organic chemistry at The University of Iowa. He was promoted to full professor in 1952, and served as department chairman from 1962 to 1968.

Dr. Wawzonek supervised the research of 56 doctoral degree students and seven master's degree students. He had 196 publications and three patents, one of which was cited by Current Contents in 1984 as a Citation Classic. He received the Iowa Award of the American Chemical Society in 1960, the Midwest Award of the American Chemical Society in 1976 and the Outstanding Achievement Award of the University of Minnesota in 1975. He became a Distinguished Fellow of the Iowa Academy of Science in 1979.

Dr. Wawzonek was also active as an editor and consultant. He served as an Associate Editor of Chemical Reviews from 1960 to 1962 and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Electrochemical Society and Organic Preparation and Procedures International. He was a consultant for Ashland Oil, Inc., the Monsanto Company, and Union Carbide Corporation.

Most Recent Lecturer

The research interests and accomplishments of Professor David Gin address problems in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, and the impact of his work spans an uncommonly wide range of compound classes. Inspired by the potential for development of cancer therapeutics, Gin's remarkable synthesis of the immunostimulant QS-21A requires an intricate assembly of triterpene, oligosaccharide, and polyketide components. Meanwhile, his recent synthesis of nominine, a member of the hetisine alkaloid family characterized by potent vasodilating, antiarrhythmic, immunomodulating, and analgesic properties, involves the dramatically efficient construction of a nitrogen-containing caged polycyclic core structure of intriguing architectural detail. His accomplishments also include total syntheses of pyrenolide D, batzelladines A and D, and the development of new glycosylation methodology.

Past Stanley Wawzonek Lecturer's

• 2008. David Y. Gin. Sloan-Kettering Institute Cancer Center, University Park, PA.
• 1997. Albert I. Meyer. Colorado State University.
• 1994. Thomas R. Cech. University of Colorado, Boulder.
• 1992. Peter B. Dervan. California Institute of Technology.
• 1991. Paul A. Wender. Stanford University.
• 1990. Duilio Arigoni. ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
• 1988. Samuel Danishefsky. Columbia University.
• 1987. Alan R. Katrizky. University of Florida.