Complex Natural Products As A Driving Force for Discovery in Organic Chemistry

Our laboratory is deeply interested in the discovery and development of new reaction
methodology en route to the chemical synthesis of complex bioactive molecules. Over the course
of many years, research in our group at the California Institute of Technology has been pursued in
the general area of synthetic chemistry, with a focus on the development of new strategies for the
preparation of complex molecules. Concurrent to this program of target driven synthesis is a
strong effort directed toward the development of new catalytic reaction methods, which will be
useful for a range of applications. Typically, the complex target structure is used as an inspiration
for the discovery of new reactions and technologies that may eventually be regarded as general
synthetic methodology. Consequently, this approach provides access to a) novel, medicinally
relevant structures, b) a general method for their synthesis, and c) new synthetic methods that will
be beneficial for a host of applications. These topics will be discussed in the lecture.

Brian M. Stoltz was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1970. After spending a year abroad at the Ludwig
Maximilians Universität in München, Germany, he obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry and
B.A. degree in German from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA. Following
graduate studies at Yale University in the lab of John L. Wood and an NIH postdoctoral fellowship
at Harvard in the group of Professor E. J. Corey, he took a position at the California Institute of
Technology. A member of the Caltech faculty since 2000, he is currently the Victor and Elizabeth
Atkins Professor of Chemistry and an Investigator of the Heritage Medical Research Institute. His
research interests lie in the development of new methods for general applications in synthetic
chemistry and biologically active small molecules. Among his many distinctions, Professor Stoltz
has been the recipient of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar and the E. J. Corey Awards from the
American Chemical Society, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering
(PECASE) from the White House, the 2009 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical
Sciences for Chemistry, and was the 2015 recipient of the Mukaiyama Award by the Society of
Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan. He was named the recipient of the 2018 American Chemical
Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the recipient of the
2024 American Chemical Society H.C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic
Methods, named the 2026 ACS Ernest Guenther Awardee in the Chemistry of Natural Products,
and in 2019 became a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Professor Stoltz has trained
more than 200 students and postdocs, who have gone on to successful independent careers in
industry and academia. In 2017, he was awarded the Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in
Teaching at Caltech, the highest honor for teaching at the institute