Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou

Dr. Kyriacos C. Nicolaou is the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Chemistry at Rice University. Prior to 2013 he had a joint appointment as the Darlene Shiley Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, the Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs Professor of Chemical Biology in The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology (part of the Scripps Research Institute), and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also foreign member of the Royal Society of London. Nicolaou is distinguished for his many original and outstanding achievements in the total synthesis of structurally complex and biologically important natural products, e.g. the anticancer drug Taxol, amphotericin B, calicheamycin, brevetoxin A, epothilone B, CP molecules, vancomycin, rapamycin, everninomicin, azaspiracid-1, sporolide B, and thiostrepton, amongst others. His accomplishments have brought this area of synthesis to new levels of molecular complexity and diversity. They have also impacted decisively and helped shape the frontiers of chemistry, biology and medicine. Nicolaou has also published the popular books 'Classics in Total Synthesis', and 'Molecules that Changed the World', which have been an inspiration to young and old synthetic chemists, worldwide. Among Nicolaou's awards and honors are the Schering Prize (Germany), the Aspirin Prize (Spain), the Max Tishler Prize Lecture (Harvard), the Yamada Prize (Japan), the Janssen Prize (Belgium), the Nagoya Medal (Japan), the Centenary Medal (Royal Society UK), the Paul Karrer Medal (Switzerland), the Inhoffen Medal (Germany), the Nichols Medal (USA), the Linus Pauling Medal (USA), the Esselen Award (USA), the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (USA), the ACS Guenther Award in Natural Products Chemistry (USA), the Nobel Laureate Signature Award, Tetrahedron Prize Award, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, and several honorary degrees.