Richard F. Heck Ph.D.
Richard F. Heck Ph.D.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010
Nobel co-recipients: Ei-ichi Negishi, Akira Suzuki
Name: Richard Fred Heck
Birth: 15 August 1931, Springfield, MA, USA
Death: 9 October 2015, Manila, Philippines
Institution: University of Delaware, USA
Award: “for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”
Subject: Organic chemistry
Portion of cash: 1/3
Doctoral Advisor: Saul Winstein
Growing orchids in early teens lead to passion for chemistry.
Biography
Books
Defining Moment
Death
Family
Health
History of Discovery
Hobbies
Honoring Richard Heck
Images
Patents
Retirement
Quotations
Sadness
Videos
Youth
Defining Moment
In 1956, Heck commenced working at the research center of the Hercules Powder Co. (now Ashland Inc.) in Wilmington, Delaware. Probably the 25 year old was hired owing to his knowledge of physical organic chemistry. Using Ziegler-Natta catalysts he worked on developing a commercial process for producing polymers. Ziegler-Natta catalysts are used at present to produce large volumes of rubbers and plastics. Heck felt, that he had accomplished “little of scientific value in the two years that I was in this program.” However, that experience was of great value to him for later work. Heck’s supervisor Dr. David Breslow, advised him “do something with transition metals”. This was a defining moment for the advice lead to Heck’s later work regarding transforming modern organic chemistry and the field of transition metal catalysis.