Scott Eric Denmark is an American chemist who is the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

(UIUC). Denmark received an S.B. degree from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1975 and the D.Sc.Tech. degree from

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...

in 1980, under the supervision of Professor

Albert Eschenmoser Albert Jakob Eschenmoser (born 5 August 1925) is a Swiss organic chemist, best known for his work on the synthesis of complex heterocyclic natural compounds, most notably vitamin B12. In addition to his significant contributions to the field of ...

. He joined the faculty at UIUC the same year and became an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...

in 1986,

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in 1987, and was named the Fuson Professor of Chemistry in 1991. He served as the president and editor-in-chief of the ''

Organic Reactions Organic reactions are chemical reactions involving organic compounds. The basic organic chemistry reaction types are addition reactions, elimination reactions, substitution reactions, pericyclic reactions, rearrangement reactions, photochemical re ...

'' book series between 2008 and 2018. In 2017, Denmark was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

. In 2018, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

Early life and education

Denmark was born in

Lynbrook, New York Lynbrook is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 19,427 at the 2010 census. History The area currently known as Lynbrook has had other names, in ...

in 1953. He attended

as an undergraduate and during his studies he was involved in research with both Richard H. Holm on

ferredoxin Ferredoxins (from Latin ''ferrum'': iron + redox, often abbreviated "fd") are iron–sulfur proteins that mediate electron transfer in a range of metabolic reactions. The term "ferredoxin" was coined by D.C. Wharton of the DuPont Co. and applied ...

analogs and Daniel S. Kemp on functionalized

cyclophane In organic chemistry, a cyclophane is a hydrocarbon consisting of an aromatic unit (typically a benzene ring) and a chain that forms a bridge between two non-adjacent positions of the aromatic ring. More complex derivatives with multiple aromatic ...

s. He received his S.B. degree from MIT in 1975. His graduate studies were conducted at the

ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

under the supervision of

. Denmark received the D.Tech. Sc. degree in 1980 for his thesis ''On the Stereochemistry of the S N’ Reaction''. Denmark was the third Eschenmoser lecturer at the ETH Zürich in 2018, the first former Eschenmoser graduate student thus honored.

Research

Denmark began his independent academic research career in 1980 at the

, where his laboratory's early work focused on investigation of the Nazarov cyclization reaction and

Claisen rearrangement The Claisen rearrangement is a powerful carbon–carbon bond-forming chemical reaction discovered by Rainer Ludwig Claisen. The heating of an allyl vinyl ether will initiate a ,3sigmatropic rearrangement to give a γ,δ-unsaturated carbonyl, ...

. This work was later recognized by the

Frederick Stanley Kipping Frederic Stanley Kipping FRS (16 August 1863 – 1 May 1949) was an English chemist. He undertook much of the pioneering work on silicon polymers and coined the term silicone. Life He was born in Salford, Lancashire, England, the son of James ...

Award to Denmark in 2014. Other interests in Denmark's group include

nitroalkene A nitroalkene, or nitro olefin, is a functional group combining the functionality of its constituent parts, an alkene and nitro group, while displaying its own chemical properties through alkene activation, making the functional group useful in sp ...

related cycloaddition reactions, phosphorus-stabilized anions,

aldol In organic chemistry, an aldol describes a structural motif consisting of a 3- hydroxy ketone or 3-hydroxyaldehyde. Aldols are usually the product of aldol addition. When used alone, the term "aldol" may refer to 3-hydroxybutanal. Stereochemist ...

chemistry, asymmetric allylmetal chemistry, silicon-based cross-coupling reactions,

phase-transfer catalysis In chemistry, a phase-transfer catalyst or PTC is a catalyst that facilitates the transition of a reactant from one phase into another phase where reaction occurs. Phase-transfer catalysis is a special form of heterogeneous catalysis. Ionic ...

water-gas shift reaction Water gas is a kind of fuel gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It is produced by "alternately hot blowing a fuel layer okewith air and gasifying it with steam". The caloric yield of this is about 10% of a modern syngas plant. F ...

, and

organocatalysis In organic chemistry, organocatalysis is a form of catalysis in which the rate of a chemical reaction is increased by an organic catalyst. This "organocatalyst" consists of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur and other nonmetal elements found in organic com ...

. His work on the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with vinylsilanol and arylrsilanol has been recognized as the Hiyama-Denmark coupling. Significant interests of Denmark's also include asymmetric catalysis with main group elements, also known as Lewis base catalysis, which is a subclass of

. He developed the paradigm of Lewis base activation of Lewis acids and successfully applied it to the asymmetric addition of a broad range of nucleophiles to silyl ketene acetals, iodo- and bromo-functionalization of alkenes, and enantioselective thio- and seleno-functionalization of alkenes. His work has yielded several Lewis base catalysts that are chiral phosphoramide derivatives. Unlike other organocatalysts, the Lewis base catalysts operate without the assistance of

H-bonding In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing ...

, and have a broad substrate scope. Chiral_Lewis_base_catalysts

An additional area of research for the Denmark group is the observation and characterization of the pre-transmetalation species of the boron-palladium adduct in

Suzuki reaction The Suzuki reaction is an organic reaction, classified as a cross-coupling reaction, where the coupling partners are a boronic acid and an organohalide and the catalyst is a palladium(0) complex. It was first published in 1979 by Akira Suzuki, ...

s using rapid-injection NMR techniques. Denmark also has research interests in

computational chemistry Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulation to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of mo ...

and chemoinformatics, organic chemistry, and catalysis with nanoparticles. Denmark has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and 27 book chapters and edited several book volumes including: ''Topics in Stereochemistry'', ''

Organic Syntheses ''Organic Syntheses'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1921. It publishes detailed and checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds. A unique feature of the review process is that all of the data and exper ...

'', and ''Lewis Base Catalysis in Organic Synthesis''. He has been an editor of ''

'' since 1994 and the editor-in-chief and president from 2008 to 2019. Denmark is known for his intensity and enthusiasm as an advisor and for his strict adherence to the 'Swiss method' of organic synthesis, compound characterization, and reporting of experimental methods. Students who worked with him early in his research career later recalled their self-description as "Denmark's Disciples" in a retrospective recognizing his contributions.

Awards and honors

* Elected fellow of the

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 ...

, 2009 * Elected to the

, 2017 * Elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

, 2018 * Recipient of the Arthur C.Cope Award, 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denmark, Scott Eric University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty 21st-century American chemists American organic chemists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of the American Chemical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Living people 1953 births