Another Great Day for Organometallic Chemistry

Abstract

The title of this Editor’s Page is derived from one that appeared in the December 5, 2005, issue, “AGreatDay forOrganometallicChemistry” (Organometallics 2005, 24, 6073),which celebrated the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Robert H. Grubbs, Richard R. Schrock, and Yves Chauvin for their pioneering work on olefin metathesis. Now, exactly five years later, the organometallic community has further occasion to celebrate with the award of the year 2010 Nobel Prize to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, andAkira Suzuki for “palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”. The three carbon-carbon bond forming name reactions associated with these recipients have revolutionized the practice of synthetic organic chemistry and spawned thousands of follow-up papers involving new catalysts, mechanistic investigations, and diverse types of preparative targets (natural products, non-naturalmolecules, pharmaceutical and agricultural chemicals, polymers, materials, etc.). The names “Heck”, “Suzuki”, or “Negishi”, have appeared in 99 titles, 144 abstracts, and the text of thousands of articles that have been published in Organometallics. Ei-ichi Negishi also servedonourAdvisoryBoard from1999 to 2001.ThenewLaureates have 11publications in Organometallics (2-5 each). In the case of Richard Heck, most of his seminal work was published before this journal came into existence. Much of the work uponwhich thisNobel Prize is basedwas conducted at a timewhen the mechanistic understanding of organometallic chemistry was considerably more primitive than it is today. As such, this underscores the importance of discovery-oriented inquiry and fundamental research in chemistry;modus operandi that funding, societal, and business pressures have rendered less fashionable in academia in many countries today and are on the verge of extinction in industry. When the 2005 Nobel Prize (see above) is viewed together with that of 2001 (W. S. Knowles, K. B. Sharpless, R. Noyori), this gives organometallic chemistry bragging rights to more Nobel Prizes than any other area of chemistry over the previous decade. In retrospect, the title of ourDecember 5, 2005, article was clearly toomodest: one can speak of a great day for organometallic chemistry, but on thewhole, there are abundant numbers of great days, including many to come. The Editors of Organometallics express, also on behalf of the Advisory Board and our authors and readers, their heartiest congratulations to the three Nobel Laureates on the occasion of this richly deserved award. This Prize recognizes their outstanding contributions that have helped to ensure the continuing vitality, development, and importance of organometallic chemistry.