Ben Feringa | |
|---|---|
 Ben Feringa in 2017 | |
| Born | Bernard Lucas Feringa (1951-05-18)18 May 1951 (age 74) Barger-Compascuum, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch[2] |
| Alma mater | University of Groningen |
| Known for | Molecular switches/motors,Homogeneous catalysis,stereochemistry,photochemistry |
| Spouse | Betty Feringa |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2016)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Organic Chemistry Materials Science Nanotechnology Photochemistry |
| Institutions | University of Groningen (1984–present) Royal Dutch Shell (1979–1984) |
| Thesis | Asymmetric oxidation of phenols. Atropisomerism and optical activity (1978) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Wijnberg |
| Website | benferinga |
Bernard Lucas "Ben"Feringa (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈbɛrnɑrtˈlykɑzbɛnˈfeːrɪŋɣaː]; born 18 May 1951) is a Dutchsynthetic organic chemist, specializing inmolecular nanotechnology andhomogeneous catalysis.
He is theJacobus van 't HoffDistinguished Professor ofMolecular Sciences,[3][4] at theStratingh Institute for Chemistry,[5]University of Groningen, Netherlands, and an AcademyProfessor of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He was awarded the 2016Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together withSir J. Fraser Stoddart andJean-Pierre Sauvage, "for the design and synthesis ofmolecular machines".[1][6]
Feringa was born as the son of farmer Geert Feringa (1918–1993) and his wife Lies Feringa née Hake (1924–2013). Feringa was the second of ten siblings in a Catholic family. He spent his youth on the family's farm, which is directly on the border with Germany, inBarger-Compascuum in theBourtange moor. He is of Dutch and German descent. Among his ancestors is the settlerJohann Gerhard Bekel. Together with his wife Betty Feringa, he has three daughters. He lives inPaterswolde nearGroningen.[7]
Feringa received hisMSc degreewith distinction from theUniversity of Groningen in 1974.[8] He subsequently obtained aPhD degree at the same university in 1978, with the thesis titled "Asymmetric oxidation of phenols.Atropisomerism andoptical activity".[9] Following a short period atShell in the Netherlands and theUnited Kingdom, he was appointed aslecturer at the University of Groningen in 1984 andFull Professor, succeeding Prof Wijnberg, in 1988. His early career was focused onhomogenous catalysis andoxidation catalysis, and especially onstereochemistry with major contributions in the field ofenantioselective catalysis, including monophosligand[10] used inasymmetric hydrogenation, asymmetricconjugate additions oforganometallicreagents, including the highly reactiveorganolithium reagents and organicphotochemistry andstereochemistry. In the 1990s, Feringa's work instereochemistry led to major contributions inphotochemistry, resulting in the first monodirectional light driven molecular rotary motor[11] and later a molecular car (a so-callednanocar) driven by electrical impulses.[12]
Ben Feringa holds over 30patents and has published over 650peer reviewedresearch papers to date, cited more than 30,000 times and has anh-index in excess of 90.[13] He has guided over 100 PhD students over his career.[14]
Feringa found that the early introduction of chiroptical molecular switches,[15] based on the design of the first chiral overcrowded alkenes[16] and the demonstration of optically controlled molecular switching and amplification of chirality in mesoscopic systems,[17] lead to molecular rotary motors in which chirality plays a critical role in achieving the same function achieved by nature, for example, the unidirectional rotation ofretinal inrhodopsin.[18] This work led to the discovery of the world's first unidirectional molecular rotary motor[11] and this work has been laying the ground-work for a key component of futuremolecular nanotechnology i.e.nanomachines andnanorobots powered bymolecular motors. Feringa's design and synthesis of nanomolecular machines, specificallymolecular switches andmolecular motors, have initiated major novel approaches towards complex and dynamic chemical systems and the dynamic control of function.
Applications of molecular switches developed in his group include responsive materials andsurfaces,[19]liquid crystals,[20]electrochromic devices foroptoelectronics,[21] photo-switchableDNA as a molecular memory stick,[22] responsivegels,[23]polymers,[24][25] and light-switchableprotein channels[26] for nanoscaledrug delivery systems,anionsensing, responsivecatalysts andphotopharmacology as well as entirely novel approaches using responsivedrugs towardanticancer agents,antibiotic treatment andantibiotic resistance, andbiofilm formation. Interfacingmolecular motors with the macroscopic world by surface assembly on gold nanoparticles[27] and a macroscopic gold film,[28] has shown that the motor functions while chemically bound to a surface, a key result for future nanomachines such as a molecular conveyor belt. Experiments that involve doping liquid crystals with molecular motors demonstrate that the motion of the motor can be harnessed to make macroscopic objects rotate on a liquid crystal film[29] and drive molecular systemsout-of-equilibrium. Several of these discoveries were selected for the list of most important chemical discoveries of the year byChemical & Engineering News.
In 2011, molecular ‘nanocar’,[12] a molecule that contains molecular motor-based wheels and was shown to move on a solid surface upon subjection to electric current from an STM tip, was highlighted in international daily newspapers & magazines worldwide and selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as one of the 10 major discoveries in sciences worldwide.[citation needed] Towards the future discipline ofSystems chemistry, the development of a multistage chiral catalysts[30] which comprises an integrated supramolecular system that brings together molecular recognition, chirality transfer, catalysis, stereoelectronic control and enantio-selectivity while all these processes can be enabled or disabled via an internal motor function, moves the design and application of molecular motors to a whole new level of sophistication.
Aside from molecular motors and switches, Feringa's work has crossed many disciplines and includes the use of phosphoramidites as ligands in asymmetric catalysis, an excellent stereocontrol was archived in copper-catalysed C–C bond formation, which led to a breakthrough in catalytic asymmetric conjugate addition.[31] As phosphoramidites found use in industry, recently they utilised them as starting reagents for asymmetric C-P bond formation. Traditionally, an external chiral ligand is used for chiral induction in a C–P coupling reaction, but the competitive coordination of initial and final phosphorus compounds with the metal catalysts, together with an external chiral ligand, reduces the enantioselectivity. As BINOL-containing phosphoramidites have the properties of an intrinsic chiral ligand and simultaneously can serve as a substrate, they hypothesized that they would increase stereoselectivity in C–P coupling processes with aryl compounds, and were delighted when that data confirmed that they did.[32]
Moreover, many other highlighted works are chiral electromagnetic radiation to generate enantioselectivity, low molecular weight gelators, imaging porphyrins with STM, drying induced self-assembly, organic synthesis, CD spectroscopy, asymmetric catalysis, exploring the origins of chirality including the possibility of an extraterrestrial source and various aspects of surface science including surface modification, surface energy control, and porphyrin allayers.
.jpg)
Feringa is a member of many chemical and scientific related societies: In 1998, Feringa was elected as a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). In 2004, he was elected International Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[33] Feringa is an elected member, since 2006, and Academy Professor, since 2008, of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).[34][35] At the KNAW Feringa served as vice-president and Chair of Board of the Science Division.[34] In addition, Feringa is a former president of theBürgenstock Conference in 2009, Switzerland, and an elected Member of theAcademia Europaea since 2010.[36] In 2013, he was appointed as Council Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. On 13 October 2016, Feringa was elected an Honorary Member of theRoyal Netherlands Chemical Society.[37]
In recognition of his contributions to synthetic methodologies and catalysis, Feringa was given theNovartis Chemistry Lectureship Award 2000–2001. A large part of Feringa's research career has focused on molecular nanotechnology and especially molecular photochemistry and stereochemistry. His contributions in these areas have been recognized in research awards includingKörber European Science Prize in 2003, theSpinoza Prize in 2004,[38] and the Prelog Gold Medal in 2005 (ETH-Zürich), Switzerland,[39] He won theJames Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry of theAmerican Chemical Society in 2007, USA, theEuropean Research Council Advanced Grant in 2008, and the Paracelsus Award of the Swiss Chemical Society, in 2008.[40]
Feringa furthermore was awarded theChirality Medal for distinguished contributions to all aspects of stereochemistry in 2010, theSolvias Ligand Contest Award (shared with John Hartwig,Yale University (US), the Organic Stereochemistry Award in 2011 of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, and the Decennial Van‘t Hoff Medal in 2011 of the Genootschap ter Bevordering van de Natuur-, Genees-, en Heelkunde, in the Netherlands.
Feringa's contributions to the molecular sciences have been recognized with theArthur C. Cope Scholar Award, theNagoya Medal of Organic Chemistry,[41] the 2012 Grand Prix Scientifique Cino del Duca,[42] and the Humboldt award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2012, Germany.
In 2013, he won subsequently the Lily European Distinguished Science Award, the Nagoya Gold Medal in Nagoya, Japan, the Yamada-Koga Award in Tokyo, Japan, theRoyal Society of Chemistry Award for distinguished service, and theMarie Curie Medal of thePolish Chemical Society.
He has written several invited review articles and book chapters for a number of journals and books includingChemical Reviews,Accounts of Chemical Research,Angewandte and the main textbook in the field ofcircular dichroism,Comprehensive Chiroptical Spectroscopy.[43]
He won the Theodor Föster Award of theGerman Chemical Society (GDCh) & Bunsen-Society for Physical Chemistry in 2014, Germany,[44] and the Arthur C. Cope Late Career Scholars Award of theAmerican Chemical Society in 2015. In November 2015, he was the recipient of the "Chemistry for the futureSolvay prize",[45] which was awarded for "his work on groundbreaking research on molecular motors, a research field that paves the way to new therapeutic and technological applications with nanorobots."[45]
On 20 December 2016, Feringa jointly received theNobel Prize in Chemistry, together withSir J. Fraser Stoddart andJean-Pierre Sauvage, for their work on molecular machines.[1] Feringa had been considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize for some time, withThe Simpsons including him in a list of candidates in 2010.[46] In 2016, he also received the Hoffman Medal of theGerman Chemical Society[47] and theTetrahedron Prize awarded byElsevier.[48] In 2017, Feringa received the Centenary Prize of theRoyal Society of Chemistry.[49] In August 2018, Feringa was awarded the European Gold Medal presented by theEuropean Chemical Society (EuChemS) during the 7th EuChemS Chemistry Congress, held inLiverpool, UK. In 2019, Feringa accepted the Raman Chair of theIndian Academy of Sciences, an honorary position whereby eminent scientists are invited to lecture on their work and interact with the research community in India.[50][51]
In 2008, he was appointed aKnight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion byQueen Beatrix of the Netherlands,[52] and on 23 November 2016 he was promoted to Commander of the same Order byKing Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.[53] On 1 December 2016 Feringa was made an Honorary Citizen of Groningen.[54] On 6 April 2017 a street in his birthplace Barger-Compascuum was namedProf. Dr. B. L. Feringadam.[55]
In 1997, he completed the 200 kmElfstedentocht in 12 hours.
He was elected a foreign associate of the USNational Academy of Sciences in April 2019.[56]
On 2 April 2019, Ben Feringa was conferred an honorary doctoral degree by theUniversity of Johannesburg in recognition of his contributions to theChemistry field andScientific community as a whole.[57]
In 2019 he became a member of theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[58]
He was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society in 2020.[59]
Ben Feringa has served as an editorial board member for several journals published by theRoyal Society of Chemistry, includingChemical Communications (until 2012), theFaraday Transactions of the Royal Society, and as Chair of theEditorial Board ofChemistry World. He is the founding Scientific Editor (2002–2006) of theRoyal Society of Chemistry journalOrganic & Biomolecular Chemistry. In addition, he is an editorial (advisory) board member for the journalsAdvanced Synthesis and Catalysis,Adv. Phys. Org. Chem.,Topics in Stereochemistry,Chemistry: An Asian Journal published by Wiley, and advisory board member for theJournal of Organic Chemistry,Journal of the American Chemical Society published by theAmerican Chemical Society.
On 26 November 2017, Feringa, on a visit toSouth China Normal University inGuangzhou was appointed honoraryProfessor of South China Normal University.[60] From December 2017, he holds a "green card" inChina, and will lead a team researching “self-healing materials” atShanghai’sEast China University of Science and Technology.[61]
Feringa is a co-founder of the contract research company Selact (now a part of Kiadis), which was originally established to provide services in the area of organic synthesis but later developed high throughput screening methods.
including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2016The Art of Building Small: from Molecular Switches to Motors| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
