Phi Lambda Upsilon Xi Chapter - University of Pittsburgh Francis Clifford Phillips Lecture Series 1997 Phillips Lecturer Brief Biography of Larry E. Overman, University of California, Irvine Professor Overman's research interests involve the invention of new reactions and strategies in organic synthesis, and the total synthesis of complex target molecules. Among his methodological accomplishments are the invention of a broadly used method for preparing allylic nitrogen compounds from readily available allylic alcohol and a group of cyclization reactions such as the aza-Cope-Mannich rearrangement that create new heterocyclic and carbocyclic rings while controlling sterochemistry to an exceptional degree. Professor Overman's group has completed total syntheses of more than 50 natural products. His laboratory is particularly well known for the total syntheses of heterocyclic natural products, mainly alkaloids. Natural products recently synthesized in his laboratory using new chemistry developed at Irvine include (+)-scopadulcic acid A, (+)-isolaurepinnacin, and (+)-laurencin, (-)-ptilomycalin A, (+)- and (-)-strychnine, (+)- and (-)-morphine, (-)-ajmalicine, (-)-7-deacetoxyalcyonin acetate. Larry E. Overman was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1943 and raised in Hammond, Indiana where he attended public schools. He obtained a B.A. degree from Earlham College in 1965 and completed his doctoral dissertation in 1969 with Professor Howard W. Whitlock, Jr., at the University of Wisconsin. After and NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Ronald Breslow at Columbia University, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine in 1971 where he is now Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. Professor Overman was Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UCI from 1990-93. Professor Overman is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His other scientific awards include the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the ACS, Senior Scientist Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Guggenheim Fellowships. He has also received the U.C. Irvine School of Physical Sciences Distinguished Teaching award and the U.C. Irvine Alumni Association Distinguished Research Award. Internet: http://overiris1.ps.uci.edu/ http://chem.ps.uci.edu/people/faculty/leoverma/ [About PLU] [History] [Purpose] [Members] [Minutes] [Phillips Lecture] [Upcoming Events] [To Contact Us] [Home] This page was last revised on September 16, 2002.