Eric V. Anslyn (born June 9, 1960,

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

) is an American chemist , University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. He previously held the Norman Hackerman Professorship. Anslyn is co-author of Modern Physical Organic Chemistry, an introductory graduate textbook.

Impact

Anslyn is notable for his work in developing designed receptors and sensor arrays by incorporating

principal component analysis Principal component analysis (PCA) is a popular technique for analyzing large datasets containing a high number of dimensions/features per observation, increasing the interpretability of data while preserving the maximum amount of information, and ...

and

discriminant analysis Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), normal discriminant analysis (NDA), or discriminant function analysis is a generalization of Fisher's linear discriminant, a method used in statistics and other fields, to find a linear combination of features ...

to mimic human taste and smell. Prof. Anslyn developed a colorimetric sensor to distinguish

flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

s (hydrolysis products of

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner ...

s) between varietals of red wines. An analogous colorimetric sensor was developed to mimic human taste by positioning polymer microbeads on a silicon chip. In related research, Prof. Anslyn designed a

fluorometric Fluorescence spectroscopy (also known as fluorimetry or spectrofluorometry) is a type of electromagnetic spectroscopy that analyzes fluorescence from a sample. It involves using a beam of light, usually ultraviolet light, that excites the electron ...

chemical sensor consisting of a light-tight lego box and a smart phone to detect nerve agents such as VX and

sarin Sarin (NATO designation GB G-series, "B"">Nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for Nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound.American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards awarded in 2006 for his research in pattern recognition and

supramolecular chemistry Supramolecular chemistry refers to the branch of chemistry concerning chemical systems composed of a discrete number of molecules. The strength of the forces responsible for spatial organization of the system range from weak intermolecular force ...

and the Izatt-Christensen Award in Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry in 2013.

Education

*Postdoctoral Work: 2/87-9/89

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, Research Advisor:

Ronald Breslow Ronald Charles David Breslow (March 14, 1931 – October 25, 2017) was an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He was University Professor at Columbia University, where he was based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the Dep ...

Research: Mechanistic studies of ribonuclease A mimics. Detailed kinetics analyses of imidazole catalyzed 3'→5' UpU hydrolysis and isomerization. Synthesis and kinetics studies of bis-imidazole β-cyclodextrin catalyzed phosphodiester hydrolyses. *Ph.D., Chemistry: 1/87

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, Research Advisor: Robert H. Grubbs Research: Mechanistic and theoretical studies of olefin metathesis and ring-opening metathesis polymerizations catalyzed by group IV and VI metals. *B.S., Chemistry: /82

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anslyn, Eric 21st-century American chemists University of Texas at Austin faculty Columbia University alumni 1960 births California State University, Northridge alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Living people