John F. Hartwig is an American organometallic chemist who holds the position of Henry Rapoport Professor of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. His laboratory traditionally focuses on developing transition metal-catalyzed reactions. Hartwig is known for helping develop the

Buchwald–Hartwig amination In organic chemistry, the Buchwald–Hartwig amination is a chemical reaction for the synthesis of carbon–nitrogen bonds via the cross-coupling reaction, palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of amines with aryl halides. Although Pd-catalyzed ...

, a

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...

used in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

for the synthesis of carbon–nitrogen bonds via the

palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling In organic chemistry, a cross-coupling reaction is a reaction where two different fragments are joined. Cross-couplings are a subset of the more general coupling reactions. Often cross-coupling reactions require metal catalysts. One important reac ...

amines In chemistry, amines (, ) are organic compounds that contain carbon-nitrogen bonds. Amines are formed when one or more hydrogen atoms in ammonia are replaced by alkyl or aryl groups. The nitrogen atom in an amine possesses a lone pair of elec ...

with aryl halides.

Education and training

Hartwig received his A.B. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1986. With Robert G. Bergman and Richard A. Andersen as coadvisors, he earned his Ph.D. from the

in 1990. Thereafter he was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Associate at MIT, where he worked in the laboratory of Stephen J. Lippard.

Research

He assumed an independent position at Yale University in 1992. Over the next 14 years, he was promoted to associate professor, full professor and finally the Irénée duPont professorship. During this period, the

was developed. Here is an example of this reaction (OTf =

triflate In organic chemistry, triflate (Preferred IUPAC name, systematic name: trifluoromethanesulfonate), is a functional group with the Chemical formula, formula and Chemical structure, structure . The triflate group is often represented by , as opp ...

or trifluoromethanesulfonate): Buchwaldhartwig

Also while at Yale, he discovered the metal-catalyzed borylation of unactivated C-H bonds. Aliphatic C-H borylation-3

In 2006, he assumed the Kenneth L. Reinhart Jr. professorship at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. There he published "Organotransition Metal Chemistry: From Bonding to Catalysis." In 2011 he returned to Berkeley as Henry Rapoport Professor of Chemistry as well as a member of the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012. In 2019, together with Stephen Buchwald, he was awarded the Wolf Prize.

Memberships, fellowships, and awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartwig, John UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty 21st-century American chemists Princeton University alumni 1964 births Living people Monsanto employees American organic chemists