Biography
The research of Barry Sharpless is focused on homogeneous oxidation catalysts, for which he received the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2001. His group also works on asymmetric processes and has developed the concept of click chemistry. Sharpless studied at Dartmouth College and Stanford University where he earned a PhD under the guidance of E. E. van Tamelen in 1968. He carried out post-doctoral research at Stanford (with J. P. Collman) and Harvard University (with K. Bloch) before joining the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1970—90, interrupted by an appointment at Stanford in the late 1970s. Since 1990, he is a Professor at The Scripps Research Institute.