Steven V. Ley

Steven V. Ley is the BP (1702) Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and is a Fellow of Trinity College. He was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2000-2002) and was made a CBE in January 2002.His research fields are total synthesis of biomolecules with examples including indanamycin, routiennocin, avermectin B1a, okadaic acid, spongistatin, thapsigargin, epothilone A and rapamycin and the development of new catalysts, protecting groups and reagents. His total synthesis of azadirachtin, completed in 2007, is widely regarded as one of the major landmarks in total synthesis. He is the inventor of TPAP, a widely employed oxidizing reagent. He has also pioneered the use of immobilized reagents and flow techniques in multi-step organic synthesis. Steve Ley's work of over 630 papers has been recognised by 32 major prizes and awards, the most recent of which are: • 2007 SCI Innovation Award • 2007 Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (ACS) • 2006 The Nagoya Gold Medal (Banyu Life Science Foundation International, Japan) • 2006 Robert Robinson Award and Medal (Royal Society of Chemistry) • 2005 The Yamada-Koga Prize (Japan)