Barry M. Trost (born June 13, 1941, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

) is an American chemist who is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor Emeritus in the School of Humanities and Sciences at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. The

Tsuji–Trost reaction The Tsuji–Trost reaction (also called the Trost allylic alkylation or allylic alkylation) is a palladium-catalysed substitution reaction involving a substrate that contains a leaving group in an allylic position. The palladium catalyst first coor ...

and the Trost ligand are named after him. He is prominent for advancing the concept of

atom economy Atom economy (atom efficiency/percentage) is the conversion efficiency of a chemical process in terms of all atoms involved and the desired products produced. The simplest definition was introduced by Barry Trost in 1991 and is equal to the rati ...

Early life and education

Trost was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on June 13, 1941. He studied at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and obtained his B.A. in 1962. He then attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

for graduate school, where he worked with Herbert O. House on enolate anions, the

Mannich reaction In organic chemistry, the Mannich reaction is a three-component organic reaction that involves the amino alkylation of an acidic proton next to a carbonyl () functional group by formaldehyde () and a primary or secondary amine () or ammonia () ...

, and the

Robinson annulation The Robinson annulation is a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry for ring formation. It was discovered by Robert Robinson (organic chemist), Robert Robinson in 1935 as a method to create a six membered ring by forming three new carbon–c ...

. Trost graduated with his Ph.D. in 1965.

Independent career

Trost moved to the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

to begin his independent career, and was promoted to professor of chemistry in 1969, and the Vilas Research Professor in 1982. In 1987, he moved to

as professor of chemistry, and was appointed the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences in 1990. He previously served as chair of the department of chemistry. , Trost has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 161 according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

and of 140 (1040 documents) according to

Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...

Research

Trost's research focused on chemical synthesis. In order to build complex target molecules from simple molecules, Trost developed new reactions and reagents, and utilized

cascade reaction A cascade reaction, also known as a domino reaction or tandem reaction, is a chemical process that comprises at least two consecutive reactions such that each subsequent reaction occurs only in virtue of the chemical functionality formed in the p ...

s and tandem reactions. Target molecules have potential applications as novel catalysts, as well as antibiotic and anti-tumor therapeutics.

References

Sources

Biographical Data at Trost's Home Page

External links

* 21st-century American chemists American organic chemists 1941 births Scientists from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania alumni Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Stanford University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty {{US-chemist-stub