James D. White

James D. White (Oregon State University)

James D. White, Oregon State University

Senior Scholar Awards will go to Andrew S. Kende, Richard B. Silverman, Dietmar Seyferth, and James D. White; and Young Scholar Awards to Milan Mrksich and Peter H. Seeberger.
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Oregon State University Distinguished Professor James D. White is internationally known for his work in organic synthesis and structural elucidation of complex natural products with a multiplicity of stereochemical features.Among these are terpenes, alkaloids, macrolides, marine metabolites, and anthracyclines.

"From his work have come 200 publications, including 45 syntheses of natural products, many of which were first syntheses and some of which represented exceptionally challenging targets," according to colleague T. Darrah Thomas, emeritus chemistry professor at Oregon State.

Many of these synthesized compounds are of medicinal, organoleptic, or structural interest.Thomas adds that White's "work has been presented in beautifully written, full papers that reveal the intellectual depth of the master while providing models of elegance and lucidity."

White's noteworthy work in the area of terpene research is the determination of the absolute configuration and the enantiospecific synthesis of C34 -botrycoccene, which was the first synthesis of this molecule.More recently, he has achieved the total synthesis of (6)-euonyminol.This polyhydroxylated sesquiterpene, with its 11 contiguous stereogenic carbons, has so far been created only in White's laboratory.

A significant part of White's work has been directed toward macrolides.After initial successes with vermiculine, methynolide, and geodiamolide, the synthesis of boromycin represents a pinnacle in achieving control of stereochemistry and efficient assembly of highly functionalized substructures.The approach used by White for the synthesis of boromycin remains the only complete de novo synthesis of this compound.

Further work on macrolides has included the total synthesis of avermectin B1a, rutamycin B, and rhizoxin D. According to Thomas, "The synthesis of avermectin brings together three building blocks in an elegantly convergent route."White's morphine synthesis work recently found a successful asymmetric pathway to this important alkaloid.Only the second of this kind of synthesis, the route employed a unique carbenoid CH insertion to construct the central core of the morphine structure from a phenanthrenoid platform.

White, 67, received a B.A. from Cambridge University in 1959.He earned a master's degree in 1961 from the University of British Columbia, and he did his Ph.D. work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, finishing in 1965 and going on to teach at Harvard University.White was an associate professor at Harvard when he left in 1971 to teach at Oregon State.He has trained almost 60 graduate students and more than 80 postdoctoral researchers.In 1992, White earned the rank of Oregon State Distinguished Professor.

In recognition of his research, White has received many awards, the most recent being the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1998 and the Wyeth-Ayerst Research Award from Columbia University in 2000.In 1995, he received a doctorate (Sc.D.) from Cambridge University.

White served as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society between 1989 and 1994 and has been an associate editor of Chemical Communications since 1996.White served on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Organic Chemistry from 1981 to 1986.He was also on the board of editors of Organic Syntheses from 1983 to 1991 and was that publication's editor-in-chief in 1989.

White has been active in the ACS Organic Division, serving on the executive committee from 1982 to 1985 and as a councilor from 1990 to 1992.-NICK WAFLE

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James D. White Procter and Gamble

James D. White, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Oregon State University: 1988.