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K. C. Nicolaou | |
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| Born | July 5, 1946 (1946-07-05) (age 78) |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Known for | Total synthesis Nicolaou Taxol total synthesis Corey–Nicolaou macrolactonization |
| Awards | Ernest Guenther Award(1996) Wolf Prize in Chemistry(2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | Rice University Scripps Research Institute |
| Doctoral students | Tushar Kanti Chakraborty |
| Other notable students | Phil Baran Govindasamy Mugesh |
Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou (Greek:Κυριάκος Κ. Νικολάου; born July 5, 1946) is a Cypriot-Americanchemist known for his research in the area ofnatural productstotal synthesis. He is currently Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Chemistry atRice University, having previously held academic positions atThe Scripps Research Institute/UC San Diego and theUniversity of Pennsylvania.
K. C. Nicolaou was born on July 5, 1946, inKaravas,Cyprus where he grew up and went to school until the age of 18. In 1964, he went to England where he spent two years learning English and preparing to enter University. He studied chemistry at theUniversity of London (B.Sc., 1969,Bedford College;Ph.D. 1972,University College London, with Professors F. Sondheimer and P. J. Garratt). In 1972, he moved to the United States and, after postdoctoral appointments atColumbia University (1972–1973, Professor T. J. Katz) andHarvard University (1973–1976, ProfessorE. J. Corey), he joined the faculty at theUniversity of Pennsylvania where he became the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry. While at Penn, he won the prestigiousSloan Fellowship.[1]
In 1989, he relocated to San Diego, where he took up a joint appointment at theUniversity of California,San Diego, where he served as Professor of Chemistry, andThe Scripps Research Institute, where he was Darlene Shiley Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry. In 1996, he was appointed Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs Professor of Chemical Biology in The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. From 2005 to 2011, he directed Chemical Synthesis Laboratory @ ICES-A*STAR, Singapore. In 2013, Nicolaou moved toRice University.
The Nicolaou group is active in the field oforganic chemistry with research interests in methodology development andtotal synthesis. He is responsible for the synthesis of many complex molecules found in nature, such asTaxol andvancomycin. His group's route toTaxol, completed in 1994 at roughly the same time as asynthesis by the group ofRobert A. Holton, attracted nationalnews media attention due toTaxol's structural complexity and its potent anti-cancer activity.[2][3]
He is also the co-author of three popular books ontotal synthesis:
Additionally, he authored or co-authored several other books:
K. C. Nicolaou has received numerous awards and honors including:
