1 | Name: | Dr. Gilbert Stork | |
Institution: | Columbia University | ||
Year Elected: | 1995 | ||
Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Deceased | ||
Birth Date: | 1921 | ||
Death Date: | October 21, 2017 | ||
Gilbert Stork received a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in 1945. He was an assistant professor at Harvard University until 1953, when he moved to Columbia University for a career spanning four decades. He became Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus in 1992, but continued to work up to his death on October 21, 2017, at age 95. Gilbert Stork was a world leader in the art and science of synthetic organic chemistry. Not only had he achieved trail-blazing syntheses of complex natural products of biochemical interest, such as cantharidin, lupeol, prostaglandins, steroids, reserpine and calictriol, but at the same time, he had developed many synthetic methodologies of wide applicability. Of special note is the inspiration and training he provided in his laboratory for students and postdoctoral fellows who went on to important academic and industrial positions worldwide. Dr. Stork received many honors for his work, including the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry (1957), Baekeland Medal (1961), Edward Curtis Franklin Memorial Award from Stanford (1966), American Chemical Society Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1967), Roussel Prize in Steroid Chemistry (1978), Nichols Medal (1980), Arthur C. Cope Award (1980), National Medal of Science (1982), Edgar Fahs Smith Award (1982), Willard Gibbs Medal (1982), Linus Pauling Award (1983), Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (1991), the Welch Prize in Chemistry (1993), the Wolf Prize (1996), the Philadelphia Organic Chemists' Club Award (1998), the First Barton gold medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2002), the Ryoji Noyori Prize (2004) and the Herbert Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods (2005). He wss an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Académie des Sciences (France), the Royal Society of Chemistry, (U.K.), and the Royal Society (U.K.). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1995. |