John F. Hartwig is an American organometallic chemist who holds the position of Henry Rapoport Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. His laboratory traditionally focuses on developing transition metal-catalyzed reactions. Hartwig is known for helping develop the Buchwald–Hartwig amination, a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry for the synthesis of carbon–nitrogen bonds via the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of amines with aryl halides.
Education and training Hartwig received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1986. With Robert G. Bergman and Richard A. Andersen as coadvisors, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley 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 Buchwald–Hartwig amination was developed. Here is an example of this reaction (OTf = triflate or trifluoromethanesulfonate):
Also while at Yale, he discovered the metal-catalyzed borylation of unactivated C-H bonds.
In 2006, he assumed the Kenneth L. Reinhart Jr. professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 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. 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 2024 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge AwardBBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 20242022 Emanuel Merck Lectureship2021 Arthur C. Cope Award2020 Clarivate Citation Laureate2019 Wolf Prize in Chemistry2015 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2015 Willard Gibbs Award 2014 Janssen Pharmaceutical Prize 2013 Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods2012Member, National Academy of Sciences 2010 GlaxoSmithKline Scholars Award 2009 Edward Mack Jr. Memorial Award, Ohio State University 2009 Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award, Japan 2009 Joseph Chatt Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2008 International Catalysis Award from the International Association of Catalysis Society 2008 Mukaiyama Award from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan 2008 of the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society 2007 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences 2007 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Organic Synthesis 2006 ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry2005Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2004 Thieme-IUPAC Prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry 2003 Leo Hendrik Baekeland AwardAmerican Chemical Society – North Jersey Section (Awards) 1998 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award 1997 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award 1992 Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award
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