Sir David William Cross MacMillan (born 16 March 1968)[2] is a Scottish[8] chemist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2010 to 2015.[9][10] He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Benjamin List "for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis".[11] MacMillan used his share of the $1.14 million prize to establish the May and Billy MacMillan Foundation.[12]
MacMillan was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1968 and grew up in nearby New Stevenston.[13] He attended the local state-funded schools, New Stevenston Primary and Bellshill Academy, and credited his Scottish education and Scottish upbringing for his success.[14][13]
He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Glasgow, where he worked with Ernie Colvin.[15][16]
In 1990, he left the UK to begin his doctoral studies under the direction of Professor Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine. During this time, he focused on the development of new reaction methodology directed toward the stereocontrolled formation of bicyclic tetrahydrofurans. MacMillan's graduate studies culminated in the total synthesis of 7-(−)-deacetoxyalcyonin acetate, a eunicellin diterpenoid isolated from the soft coral Eunicella stricta.[17] He earned his Ph.D. in 1996.[16]
Career and research
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Upon receiving his Ph.D., MacMillan accepted a postdoctoral position with Professor David Evans at Harvard University. His postdoctoral studies centered on enantioselective catalysis, in particular, the design and development of Sn(II)-derived bisoxazoline complexes (Sn(II)box).[16]
MacMillan began his independent research career as a member of the chemistry faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in July 1998. He joined the department of chemistry at Caltech in June 2000, where his group's research interests centered on new approaches to enantioselective catalysis. In 2004, he was appointed as the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Chemistry. He became the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University in September 2006.[16]
He is considered to be one of the founders of organocatalysis.[18] In 2000, MacMillan designed small organic molecules that can provide or accept electrons and therefore efficiently catalyse reactions.[18][19] He developed catalysts that can drive asymmetric catalysis, in which a reaction produces more of the left-handed version of a molecule than the right-handed one (chirality), or vice versa.[18] MacMillan's research group has made many advances in the field of asymmetric organocatalysis, and they have applied these new methods to the synthesis of a range of complex natural products.[16][18] He developed chiral imidazolidinone catalysts.[20][19][21] MacMillan catalysts [de] are used in various asymmetric syntheses. Examples include Diels-Alder reactions,[19]1,3-dipolar cycloadditions,[22]Friedel-Crafts alkylations[23] or Michael additions.[21]
MacMillan has also extensively developed photoredox catalysis for use in organic synthesis.[24][25][26]
Between 2010 and 2014, MacMillan was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Chemical Science, the flagship general chemistry journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.[16]
In April 2024, David MacMillan was in Brazil for events at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of São Paulo.[29] In Rio, MacMillan asked to visit the headquarters of General Severiano, from Botafogo, and was received by the Club's board of directors.[30] Later in São Paulo, MacMillan held a short panel at University of São Paulo Chemistry Institute (IQ-USP) about his history as a researcher and recent Nobel laureate.
In September 2024, he will attend the Brazilian Meeting on Organic Synthesis in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul, as opening lecture.
^"The MacMillan Group". Macmillan Group. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
^"David MacMillan". American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
^ ab"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
^Service, Purdue News (23 January 2023). "David MacMillan, the 2021 Nobel laureate in chemistry, to join President Chiang for Presidential Lecture Series on Feb. 13". www.purdue.edu. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
^ ab"David MacMillan: 'Being Scottish helped me win Nobel Prize'". BBC News. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^"Success wouldn't have happened if I wasn't Scottish, says Bellshill-born Nobel Prize winner". HeraldScotland. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
^"Bellshill man and former Glasgow University student David WC MacMillan wins the Nobel prize for chemistry". Glasgow Times. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^MacMillan, David William Cross (1996). Stereocontrolled formation of bicyclic tetrahydrofurans; and, Enantioselective total synthesis of eunicellin diterpenes (Ph.D. thesis). University of California, Irvine. OCLC 35966904. ProQuest 304225710.
^ abcdCastelvecchi, Davide; Stoye, Emma (6 October 2021). "'Elegant' catalysts that tell left from right scoop chemistry Nobel". Nature. 598 (7880). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 247–248. Bibcode:2021Natur.598..247C. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-02704-2. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 34616090. S2CID 238422185.
^ abcAhrendt, Kateri A.; Borths, Christopher J.; MacMillan, David W. C. (15 April 2000). "New Strategies for Organic Catalysis: The First Highly Enantioselective Organocatalytic Diels−Alder Reaction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 122 (17). American Chemical Society (ACS): 4243–4244. doi:10.1021/ja000092s. ISSN 0002-7863.
^"David MacMillan". Princeton University Department of Chemistry. 21 July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^ abParas, Nick A.; MacMillan, David W. C. (12 June 2002). "The Enantioselective Organocatalytic 1,4-Addition of Electron-Rich Benzenes to α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (27). American Chemical Society (ACS): 7894–7895. doi:10.1021/ja025981p. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 12095321.
^Jen, Wendy S.; Wiener, John J. M.; MacMillan, David W. C. (26 September 2000). "New Strategies for Organic Catalysis: The First Enantioselective Organocatalytic 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 122 (40). American Chemical Society (ACS): 9874–9875. doi:10.1021/ja005517p. ISSN 0002-7863.
^Paras, Nick A.; MacMillan, David W. C. (13 April 2001). "New Strategies in Organic Catalysis: The First Enantioselective Organocatalytic Friedel−Crafts Alkylation". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 123 (18). American Chemical Society (ACS): 4370–4371. doi:10.1021/ja015717g. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 11457218.
^Prier, Christopher K.; Rankic, Danica A.; MacMillan, David W. C. (19 March 2013). "Visible Light Photoredox Catalysis with Transition Metal Complexes: Applications in Organic Synthesis". Chemical Reviews. 113 (7): 5322–5363. doi:10.1021/cr300503r. ISSN 0009-2665. PMC4028850. PMID 23509883.
^Shaw, Megan H.; Twilton, Jack; MacMillan, David W. C. (19 August 2016). "Photoredox Catalysis in Organic Chemistry". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 81 (16): 6898–6926. doi:10.1021/acs.joc.6b01449. ISSN 0022-3263. PMC4994065. PMID 27477076.
^Nicewicz, David A.; MacMillan, David W. C. (3 October 2008). "Merging Photoredox Catalysis with Organocatalysis: The Direct Asymmetric Alkylation of Aldehydes". Science. 322 (5898): 77–80. Bibcode:2008Sci...322...77N. doi:10.1126/science.1161976. PMC2723798. PMID 18772399.
^David MacMillan publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
^"Nobel Prize Dialogue – Criando nosso futuro junto com a ciência" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^Mesquita, Diego (13 April 2024). "Botafogo recebe vencedor do Prêmio Nobel de Química para visita à sede de General Severiano". Fogo na Rede (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^Newsroom, The (8 June 2022). "Nobel prize winning chemist from Bellshill has now been knighted by the Queen". GlasgowWorld. Retrieved 9 June 2022. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
^"MacMillan Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship". California Institute of Technology. August 2002. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
^"Caltech Faculty Awards and Honors 2004–2005" (PDF). California Institute of Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
^"New Fellows 2012". Royal Society. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
^"Sir David MacMillan's Royal Society Fellowship Biography". The Royal Society. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
^"David W.C. MacMillan". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
^"Professor David William Cross MacMillan FRS, CorrFRSE – The Royal Society of Edinburgh". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
^"Past Recipients of the Harrison Howe Award". Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^"The Society of SynthRyoji Noyori Prize Recipients". www.ssocj.jp (in Japanese). Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
^"MacMillan To Laud Graduates' Resilience". NC State News. 1 May 2024. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
External links
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Scholia has a profile for David MacMillan (Q5237001).