about Heterocycles

Kametani Award

List of Kametani Award
Curriculum Vitae

Edward R. Biehl

Professor Biehl was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and after a four-year tour of duty in the US Air Force, he attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received the BS and PhD.degrees in organic chemistry under the tutor ledge of Dr. Robert Levine, who was the first to promote the use of LDA as a strongly basic, weakly nucleophilic reagent in organic synthesis. After spending one year Monsanto Research Corporation, he joined the faculty at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX where after 50 years, and still counting, he remains quite active in carrying research in organic synthesis with special emphasis on heterocyclic chemistry. During this time he has served as Chair of the department for 27 years, Although the Department has only recently inaugurated a Ph. D. Program, he was able to carry out an intensive research program using Post-docs (around 45) and undergraduate students (around 300) and which has been supported by continuous funding from private and federal funding agencies His early research centered on the use of the benzyne reaction in organic synthesis where, unbeknownst to him at that time, he synthesized one of the precursors to ibuprofen! Since then he has expanded his research to the synthesis of heterocycles using microwave heating. Several of these heterocycles have been found to have neuroprotecting activities and currently are under study for the treatment of Parkison and Huntington diseases. To date, he has published over 275 papers. 6 patents, and has written several chapters on thiophene chemistry in Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry and Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry. He has received several teaching and research awards including Outstanding Alumni Award from Chemistry Department of the University of Pittsburgh, the Dedman Family Outstanding Professor Award, and the Perrine Prize from the Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Kozo Shishido

Dr. Kozo Shishido is a Professor of synthetic organic chemistry in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokushima. He was born in Miyagi, Japan in 1946. He received his Ph.D. degree from Tohoku University in 1976 under the direction of the late Professor Tetsuji Kametani. From 1978 to 1980, he carried out postdoctoral research with the late Professor A. I. Scott (Texas A&M University) and Professor M. E. Jung (UCLA). In 1972, he was appointed as Assistant Professor at Tohoku University. He then moved to the University of Tokushima as Associate Professor in 1989. Since 1994, he has been a Full Professor in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokushima. His main research interests are the total synthesis of biologically active natural products and the development of new preparative methods.

Leo A. Paquette

Dr. Leo A. Paquette currently serves as Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, in 1934, he was awarded the Ph.D. degree from MIT in 1959 (Prof. Norman Nelson) for his investigation of synthetic routes to azasteroid analogues. In the ensuing four years, he worked as a medicinal research chemist at the Upjohn Company (Kalamazoo, Michigan). He then joined the faculty of The Ohio State University to begin his academic career. He quickly moved through the ranks to become Full Professor (1969), Kimberly Professor (1981), and Distinguished University Professor (1987). During this period, he held brief visiting positions at several educational institutions in the USA and Europe.
His research program, which has spanned more than four decades, has encompassed numerous aspects of heterocyclic and carbocyclic chemistry, as detailed in Volume 62 of Heterocycles. He has published more than 1250 papers, been the recipient of many awards, and delivered numerous plenary and invited lectures throughout the world. He has served on the editorial boards of a significant number of books and journals, most notably the Encyclopedia of Reagents in Organic Synthesis. He became an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1984.

Professor Paquette has mentored more than 140 doctoral students and in excess of 350 postdoctoral research associates. These co-workers constitute his legacy to the chemical profession.

Csaba Szántay

Csaba SZÁNTAY was born in 1928 in Hungary. After taking his chemical engineering degree from the Technical University of Budapest in 1950, he started working in the Institute of Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. G. ZEMPLÉN ( himself being a student of the Nobel Laureate Emil Fischer ), in the field of carbohydrate chemistry. Later on his interest turned towards alkaloid chemistry, and the title of his Ph.D. thesis, submitted in 1955, was: "Syntheses Starting from Opianic Acid."
In l962 he worked for three months in the Institute of Prof. RIECHE in Berlin, and his work resulted in a common publication with E. SCHMITZ about the chemistry of diaziridines.

In 1964 he spent a short period in Gif-sur-Yvette (France) financed by C.N.R.S. , where he also dealt with alkaloids in the department of Prof. Janot and Prof. Goutarel.
He obtained his "Doctor of Science" degree in 1964 on the ground of his thesis: "Synthesis of Ipecac Alkaloids"
In 1965-66 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the State University of New-York at Buffalo with Prof. BARDOS at the Medicinal Chemistry Department working on potential cancer therapeutic agents, mainly with nucleosides.

In addition to that, he found the first example for a low pyramidal inversion rate of a secondary amino group in aziridines, and made quantitative measurements by the help of NMR concerning the phenomenon.
In 1967 he became Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University of Budapest. He was elected to be a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1970.
For the last decades he has dealt mainly with the syntheses of natural products, such as yohimbine-, and vinca-type alkaloids, morphine alkaloids, amphibian alkaloid epibatidine, prostanoids, insect hormones and pheromones etc. etc.
About 400 publications mainly in international journals, in addition to a few books comprise the results of the above work. He is a regularly invited lecturer at international conferences and congresses.
He is co-author of about 270 patents reflecting his good connection with the pharmaceutical industry. He is the president of the Hungarian Inventors, Association.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of "Medicinal Research Reviews" (USA), an Honorary Advisor to the Editorial Board of "Heterocycles" (Japan), to the "Natural Product Letters", and "Trends in Heterocyclic Chemistry" (India).
He is giving plenary lectures regularly at International Conferences. e.g.lately he has been an invited lecturer at 5th Joint Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry ( Jun. 17-21, Slovenia , 2007 ) , as well at 10th International Symposium on Natural Product Chemistry ( Janaury, 6-9 2006 ) in Karachi, Pakistan.

Toshio Honda

Dr. Toshio Honda is Professor of organic chemistry at Hoshi University. He was born in 1947 in Tokyo. He received his Ph. D. degree from Tohoku University in 1975 (Prof. Tetsuji Kametani). He started his academic career in 1972, right after he left a school during his Ph. D. course, as a research associate at The Pharmaceutical Institute, Tohoku University, and spent a postdoctoral year (April 1, 1976-December 31, 1978) at the University of British Columbia, Canada (Prof. James P. Kutney). He became Lecturer at Tohoku University in 1980 and moved to Hoshi University in 1981. Since 1992, he has been a full professor at the same university. Prof. Honda received The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists in 1989 and FIP Pharmaceutical Scientist Award in 2004. His research interests include the total synthesis of biologically active natural products, development of new synthetic methods and strategy, and structure determination of natural products. He is also interested in working in the field of medicinal chemistry.

Branko Stanovnik

Dr. Branko Stanovnik is a professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He was born in 1938 in Brezovica, Slovenia. He obtained a Diploma in chemistry in 1960 and received his Ph. D degree in organic chemistry at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1964, becoming Assistant Professor in the same year, Associate Professor in 1967, and Professor in 1972. He carried out his Postdoctorate between 1964 and 1965 at the National Research Council of Canada, (Atlantic Regional Laboratory, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). From 1974 to 1976 he was a visiting Professor at the university of Indiana (Bloomington, Indiana, USA), and in 1979 was a visiting fellow of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australia National University (Canberra, Australia).
Prof. Stanovnik research interests include organic chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry and organic synthesis. He has published over 600 papers including reviews, articles and books.
Prof. Stanovnik has received awards including the Kidric Fund Award for Science (Slovenia, 1972 and 1977), Honorary Medal and Diploma (Technical University, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 1975), and the Boris Kidric Fund Award for Innovations (Slovenia, 1981 and 1989). He was also awarded the Kametani Award for outstanding research in Heterocyclic chemistry (2006).
He was a member of the Advisory Board, International society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (1983-1987), Vice-President of the Union of Yugoslav Chemical Societies (1976-1984), and a Member of the Council of Federation of European Chemical Societies (1987-1991). He is also a 30 year Chairman of the Editorial Board, Slovenskega drustva (since 1976, present since 1994 Acta Chimica Slovenica, Slovenia). He is also a member of the General Assembly, Federation of European Chemical Societies (since 1987), and presently a member of 12 other editorial and advisory boards for heterocyclic chemistry and chemical journals, including other scientific organizations.
Prof. Stanovnik has given 70 plenary and 200 invited lectures at various universities, academies and industrial research laboratories in over 20 countries.
Prof. Stanovnik has been elected as a member for the following organizations; Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London, Great Britain), Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (Salzberg, Austria), The New York Academy of Sciences (New York, USA), Honorary member of the Hungarian Chemical Society, and Inaugural Honorary member of the Florida Center for Hetercyclic compounds (Gainesville, Florida, USA).

Heintz Heimgartner

Dr. Heinz Heimgartner was born in 1941 in Muensterlingen, Switzerland. He studied chemistry at the University of Zuerich and received his PhD from this University in 1972 with a PhD thesis 'Photochemical and Thermal Aromatic Sigmatropic Rearrangements in Hydrocarbons' (Supervisor Prof. H. Schmid). His research work during the habilitation was focused on the chemistry of 2H-azirines. He became lecturer at the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the University of Zuerich in 1980 with the habilitation thesis '3-Amino-2H-azirines, New Synthons for Heterocyclic Compounds'. In 1987, he was promoted to titular professor and 1995 to associate professor at the same university. The research activities range from mechanisms of organic reactions to the preparation of N, S, and Se-heterocycles and the synthesis and conformation of peptides. The use of small ring heterocycles, isoselenocyanates, and S-centered 1,3-dipolar species as building blocks in organic synthesis is in the centre of interest. He is author of ca. 400 scientific papers and member of the editorial board of several chemistry journals. He was awarded the Alfred-Werner medal of the Swiss Chemical Society, the medal of the University of Lodz, the award of the Polish Ministry of Education, and the honorary membership of the Polish Chemical Society.

Masataka Ihara

Masataka Ihara, Professor emeritus of Tohoku University, is currently a specially appointed research head at Hoshi University and CSO of Synstar Japan CO., Ltd. He was born in 1942 and graduated from Tohoku University in 1965. After obtaining his Ph. D. degree under the supervision of the late Professor T. Kametani in 1970, he was appointed Assistant Professor at Tohoku University. He spent postdoctoral years with Professor Sir A. R. Battersby at the Chemical Laboratory of Cambridge University during 1971–1974. He was then appointed as Associate Professor at the Pharmaceutical Institute of Tohoku University in 1981, promoted to Professor in 1997, and retired from Tohoku University in March 2006. He received The Research Foundation Award for Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1987, The Miyata Academic Prize in 1992, The Kametani Award in 2004, and The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award in 2005. His research interests include development of synthetic methodology and medicinal chemistry. His main interest at Hoshi University is the development of anti-parasitic agents.

Mauri Lounasmaa

Dr. Mauri Lounasmaa was born in 1933 in Turku, Finland. He received his Ph.D degree at the Technical University of Helsinki, Finland, in 1968 on the ground of his thesis "Naturally Occurring Quinones".
Dr. Lounasmaa was a researcher at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (1965-1966, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France). He carried out his Postdoctorate at the Indiana University (Bloomington, USA) under Prof. E. Wenkert during 1968-1969. He became associate Professor in organic chemistry at the University of Oulu (Finland, 1969-1970), senior researcher at the Finnish Academy (1972-1975), Professor in structural organic chemistry at the University of Oulu (Finland) (1975-1978), and Professor in organic chemistry at the Technical University of Helsinki (Finland) (1979-1998).
Prof. Lounasmaa's main research interests include natural products, especially indole alkaloids and he has published about 250 publications.
He has received awards and honors from the Technical University of Helsinki Price for excellent studies (1974), and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Award (1986). Also an award from the Member of Society of Sciences in Finland (1988 and 1990), Doctor honoris causa; Universite d' Auvergne (France, 2000), and the Kametani award (2003).

Masanori Somei

Masanori Somei, born in 1941, graduated from Tokyo University, where he obtained his Ph. D under the supervision of Prof. T. Okamoto in 1970. He then moved to ITSUU Laboratory (1970–1976). After postdoctoral work (1975-1976) with Prof. W. G. Dauben (University of California, Berkeley), he was promoted to Associate Prof. of Kanazawa University (1976), and in that place he has been Prof. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry since 1984; he is now retired and Prof. Emeritus of Kanazawa University. He received The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists (1971), Kametani Award (2001), and The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Educational Services (2006). His research interests are mainly synthetic philosophy, verification of his 1-hydroxyindole hypotheses, and creation of new drugs based on 1-hydroxyindole chemistry.

Tozo Fujii

Dr. Tozo Fujii, Emeritus Professor of Kanazawa University, was born in Toyama, Japan, in 1930. He studied at Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, for his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees. After having done postdoctoral work with Professor Shigehiko Sugasawa and with Professor Shun-ichi Yamada at the same faculty and with Professor Nelson J. Leonard at University of Illinois (1961-1963), he joined the teaching staff at University of Tokyo as Associate Professor in 1963. In 1967, he moved to Kanazawa University where he served as Professor of Synthetic Organic Chemistry of Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences until 1995 and as Chairman of the same faculty (1979-1981), and retired from the same university under the age limit in 1995.
Dr. Fujii's research centers on chemistry and synthesis of purines, particularly on the mechanism and synthetic utilization of fission and reclosure of the adenine ring, plant growth substances, amino acids, lactams, and fused quinolizidine ring systems which include Ipecac and Alangium alkaloids. For his outstanding contribution to the latter alkaloid field, he received the Academic Prize of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan in 1982.
Dr. Fujii had been on the editorial board of the journal Chem. Pharm. Bull. for many years. He wrote two chapters entitled "Ipecac Alkaloids and β-Carboline Congeners" and "The Ipecac Alkaloids and Related Bases" in "The Alkaloids," the classical and authoritative text originally edited by R. H. F. Manske and then by Arnold Brossi and by G. A. Cordell.

Alan R. Katritzky

Alan Katritzky, born in London, began his academic career at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom where he earned his BA (1st class honors), B.Sc., MA, and D Phil degrees, was a Senior Demy at Magdalen, Lecturer at Pembroke College, and Imperial Chemical Industries Fellow. From 1958-1963, he was a University Lecturer and Founder Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University and gaining the Ph.D. and Sc.D. degrees. He founded the University of East Anglia School of Chemical Sciences, where he was Dean 1963-1970 and 1976-1980. Professor Katritzky became Kenan Professor of chemistry at the University of Florida in 1980 and from 1985 the Director of the Center for Heterocyclic Compounds. Professor Katritzky is a world-renowned authority on Heterocyclic Chemistry and has published nearly 2000 articles in the fields of Heterocyclic chemistry, Synthesis, Statistical Methods (QSAR, QSPA), physical methods including spectroscopic techniques and kinetics, and aromaticity and tautomerism. His work has been cited over 11,000 times.
Professor Katritzky has been awarded medals and honors, from some 30 countries, some of which include: Medals from University of Brussels, Royal Society of Chemistry Tilden Medal and Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry, Golden Tiger award from Exxon Corporation, Senior Award of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry, the ACS Florida prize, a Senior Humboldt Award, Hillier Medal Latvia, Kametami Medal Japan, various honorary fellowships, and 14 Doctorates Honoris Causa from ten countries.

He was the founding Chairman for the Heterocyclic Group of the Chemical Society, and Vice President of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry. He is a 50-year member of the American Chemical Society. He is also well known long time editor of Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry since 1963 (95 volumes published), as well as being the Editor-in-Chief for Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry (since 1979) and for Comprehensive Organic Functional Group Transformations (since 1991). He also served as an Editor of five other journals including Tetrahedron and Tetrahedron Letters, and on the editorial advisory boards for 26 national and international journals. In 2000, he founded ARKIVOC, an online journal available free of charge to both readers and authors, supporting research and education particularly in 2nd and 3rd world countries.

Professor Katritzky has given some 800 plenary and invited lectures in more than 50 different countries, where appropriate in French, German, or Italian.

Over the past five decades, Professor Katritzky has mentored some 300 research theses (160 of which were doctoral dissertations). A total of some 800 scholars have worked under his supervision as graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting faculty, senior visitors, or visiting students. His research has been supported continuously over the past 40 years with nearly 20 million dollars received from over eighty funding agencies, including many governmental agencies and numerous industrial entities. He has consulted for around 40 different industrial companies.