KNOWLES BIOGRAPHIES
WILLIAM STANDISH KNOWLES
Nobel Laureate - Chemistry - 2001
Descendant of: Richard
Knowles (1614 - 1675)
Knowles Progenitor: Massachusetts
- #01 (Barnstable Co.)
GENEALOGY
William Standish Knowles
s/o George Bourne Knowles (1890 - aft 1973)
s/o Joseph Frank Knowles (1853 - 1909)
s/o Joseph M. Knowles (1819 - 1876)
s/o James Hatch Knowles (1791 - 1872)
s/o Seth Knowles (c 1753 - 1821)
s/o Willard Knowles (1711 - 1786)
s/o John Knowles, Jr. (1673 - 1757)
s/o John Knowles (1641 - 1675)
s/o Richard Knowles (1614 - 1675)
[Massachusetts
Progenitor #01 (Barnstable)]
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2001
(based on article in Chesapeake Chemist, Vol. 58, No. 6, March 2002, by Leopold May)
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2001 was awarded with one-half jointly to William S. Knowles and Rvoji Noyori, for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions, and the other half to K. Barry Sharpless, for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.
Catalytic asymmetric synthesis proved to be a nice earner for William S. Knowles of Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri, Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Institute of Research, La Jolla, California and Ryoji Noyori, of Naqoya, who were awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
The enantioselective synthesis of a wide range of compounds from pharmaceuticals to agrochemicals has become of increasing importance in recent years as pressure is applied on the industry to create just one chiral form of countless products, not only to ensure safety, but also to reduce waste and improve the atom efficiency of synthesis.
In
the 1960's, Knowles was investigating catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation.
There were two key developments that paved the way for him. The first was
Osborn and Wilkinson's rhodium complex which could quickly hydrogenate
olefins. The second was Horner and Mislow's route to chiral
phosphines. Knowles' insight was to swap Wilkinson's triphenylphosphine
for the enantiomer of a known chiral phosphine to provide enantioselectivity in
the hydrogenation of olefins. His discovery eventually yielded
the Monsanto process for making the Parkinson's drug L-DOPA and much more
besides.
Knowles' work has inspired many chemists to find yet more effective chiral catalysts and although Noyori had published work in 1966 on the enantioselective cyclopropanation of olefins it was his generalization of hydrogenation in 1980 with the development of the chiral diphosphine BINAP and its rhodium complexes for which he is perhaps best known. Rh(I) complexes of the enantiomers of BINAP are remarkably effective in many asymmetric reactions.
Sharpless meanwhile was focusing on oxidation. He devised an epoxidation reaction in 1980 that offers almost total stereochemical control. Titanium (IV) tetraisopropoxide, tertbutyl hydroperoxide, and an enantiomerically pure dialkyl tartrate are the components of his eponymous reaction, which allows the chemist to carry out the epoxidation of allylic alcohols with excellent steroselectivity in a very predictable way.
Today, the products of the basic research of these three chemists are at the heart of countless industrial synthesis for antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, heart drugs, fragrances and pheromones.
