American Chemical Society posts digital tribute to late UD professor, Nobel laureate

8:57 a.m., May 25, 2016--The American Chemical Society is highlighting the legacy of the late Nobel laureate Richard Heck, the Willis F. Harrington Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Delaware, with a digital tribute on its publications website.

Included are articles published recently by Organometallics, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Journal of Organic Chemistry and Organic Letters.

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Prof. Heck's legacy

The American Chemical Society is highlighting the legacy of the late Nobel laureate Richard Heck, the Willis F. Harrington Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Delaware with a digital tribute on its publications website.

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In a guest editorial, UD organic chemist Donald Watson writes: "Richard Heck’s impact on the field of organometallic chemistry and organic synthesis is difficult to overstate. In so many ways, and for so many generations of scientists, his work has served both to create and to inspire."

The "Heck Reaction," for which Heck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010, is a palladium-catalyzed reaction that continues to play an important role in chemistry research and industry. Also receiving the prize that year were fellow researchers Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, and Ei-Ichi Negishi of Purdue University.

Heck was on the UD faculty from 1971 until his retirement in 1989. He died in October 2015 at the age of 84.

Photo by Evan Krape