This was my first major international prize, and meeting all of the participants at the BOSS Symposium helped to cement my impression of the strength of the organic chemistry community in Belgium. With the recent excellent award selections, the reputation for this fine award only grows.
Dennis P. Curran received his B.S. in 1975 from Boston College. His Ph.D. was granted from the University of Rochester in 1979 working with Prof. Andrew S. Kende. After postdoctoral stay with Professor Barry Trost at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Curran joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. He now holds the ranks of Distinguished Service Professor and Bayer Professor of Chemistry.
Dr. Curran holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Paris (2010) and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the AAAS. He held a Chair d’excellence (Paris, 2009-2010), and a Blaise Pascal Chair (Paris, 2007-2008). He has received the ACS Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products (2014), ACS Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry (2008), the Mosher Award (2007), the Pittsburgh Award (2006), the Morley Medal (2006), the Pittsburgh Magazine Innovators Award (2003), the ACS Award for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2000), the Cope Scholar Award (1988), and the Janssen Prize (1998). He is currently an ISI “Highly Cited Researcher” (www.isihighlycited.com).
Dr. Curran has co-authored about 465 papers and co-wrote or co-edited several books. He is also a co-inventor on more than three dozen issued US patents and an assortment of international patents.
Dr. Curran is well known for his work in at the interface of radical chemistry and organic synthesis and for his work on asymmetric reactions of axially chiral amides. He is also an established leader in fluorous chemistry and has made significant recent contributions to carbene-borane chemistry.
D. P. Curran
