For more than a half of a century, Barry Trost has been a highly influential scientist in almost every aspect of organic synthesis, including methodology and total synthesis. He started his career at a remarkably young age. After obtaining his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania (1962), he moved to MIT where he completed his Ph.D. with H. O. House, working on fundamental aspects of enolate chemistry. Remarkably, at the age of 24, immediately after obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1965, he accepted an offer of an Assistant Professorship at the University of Wisconsin. Four years later, at the age of 28, he became a Full Professor. In 1987, he moved to Stanford University, where he was appointed Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences.
In addition to serving multiple visiting professorships, Professor Trost was presented with a Docteur honoris causa of the Université Claude-Bernard (Lyon I), France, and in 1997 a Doctor Scientiarum Honoris Causa of the Technion, Haifa, Israel. In recognition of his innovations and scholarship in the field of organic synthesis, Professor Trost has received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, among many others. Professor Trost has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as Chairman of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section. He has held over 125 special university lectureships and presented over 270 Plenary Lectures at national and international meetings. He has published two books and over 950 scientific articles. He edited a major compendium entitled Comprehensive Organic Synthesis consisting of nine volumes and serves on the editorial board for Science of Synthesis and Reaxys.
Tsuji–Trost reaction
