Purdue Chemistry Family Celebrated The Nobel Prize

Hari Khatri, PhD Student at Department of Chemistry, Purdue University

Prof Negishi with a glass of drink in the program

We organized a program to celebrate The Nobel in Chemistry 2010. Professor Ei-ichi Negishi   in our department has shared 2010 Nobel prize in Chemistry with two other chemistry professors. Chemistry students, faculties and staffs were on the program to listen his valuable words. I was so excited to hear this news this morning. Since morning   Purdue chemistry students and faculties were excited to congratulate and honor the great Nobel laureate, Negishi. Of course it was the one of the greatest opportunity to congratulate their own mentor/teacher at the same department. The short honoring celebration was held at 4:00 pm on the behalf of Chemistry department. 

with Nobel Laureate today

Prof Negishi's contribution in chemistry is the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling, that allows for easy and efficient synthesis of complex organic compounds that have had an enormous impact on the manufacture of medicines and other products. The Nobel Prize was bestowed primarily on the strength of 10 seminal papers published from 1976 to 1978, said Negishi, who came to Purdue in 1966 as a postdoctoral researcher under the late Herbert C. Brown, who won the Nobel Prize in 1979. Negishi has discovered catalytic reactions using a number of transition metals that allow various organic compounds to be synthesized widely, efficiently and selectively for use in fields ranging from medicine to materials development. His work has resulted in dramatically reducing the cost of using such metals, like palladium, in the synthesis. Personally, Professor Negishi is a intriguing mentor and teacher among students who always encourages his students to creative thinking in the field of organic chemistry.

Prof Negishi's contribution to science

Prof  Negishi is the third Nobel laureate from Purdue university (H. C. Brown, chemistry 1979, Kevin Gurney, Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and Ei-ichi Negishi, Chemistry 2010). 

Below are two small video clips recorded by myself. Video quality is not very good.

 Part 1

Part 2