As one of the longest-serving members of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Dr. Martin O‟Donnell has witnessed chemistry at IUPUI grow from a small outpost opposite the Fairgrounds on 38th street, to a lively multidisciplinary department in a bustling urban campus. He knows what it is like to go from small to big. Marty grew up in Williams, a small farm town in Iowa with a population of about 500. His father owned a general store and Marty was one of only 11 students in the elementary/middle school he attended. His small world changed when, inspired by an uncle who was a professor of physical chemistry at Grinnell College, he left Williams to attend the University of Iowa (BS, 1964-1968). While there he immersed himself in independent undergraduate research. This confirmed his commitment to chemistry and would lead to his “pay it forward” dedication to teaching/mentoring students at IUPUI in regular undergraduate and graduate classes, and independent research.
His world continued to grow. After college he did graduate studies at Yale (Ph.D., 1968- 1973), under the direction of the renowned physical organic chemist, Ken Wiberg. His migration from small to big was complete when he crossed the Atlantic to do postdoctoral work (1973- 1975) with Leon Ghosez at Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium where he was involved in prostaglandin synthetic methodology.
Marty came to IUPUI in 1975, at a time when only bachelors and non-thesis masters degrees were awarded, and research was carried out primarily with undergraduates. Two “stars” in the group, Tom Eckrich and Robin Polk, went on to obtain Ph.D.‟s at Harvard and Columbia, respectively, followed by prestigious careers, Tom at Lilly and Robin at Arizona. Marty was 3 instrumental in establishing a Coop thesis master‟s program in our department in the early 1980‟s. His first Ph.D. student, Bill Bennett, came from IU Bloomington and was the beginning (1982-1986) of IUPUI‟s advancement to a Ph.D. granting department. His research has been funded through grants from the Research Corporation, ACS Petroleum Research Fund, NSF and NIH, as well as funding for several postdocs through collaborations with Lilly. Marty‟s research was supported by an NIH R01 grant (“Schiff Base Synthons in Amino Acid Chemistry”) from 1980 to 2009. His synthesis of unnatural amino acids was initially accomplished by introducing racemic side chains onto a protected and activated glycine catalytically in a biphasic medium using phase transfer catalysis (PTC). Two landmark publications in 1988 and 1989 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reported the origin of the chemoselectivity and the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of α-amino acids by PTC. This has become known as the “O‟Donnell Amino Acid Synthesis” and is the basis of a royalty-producing patent. As befits his long career in research he has ~100 publications in premier journals and books.
In 2003 he joined his colleague Bill Scott (Research Professor at IUPUI) in implementing the Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) program. Together they have developed simple, inexpensive, reproducible and powerful solid-phase synthetic procedures that enable undergraduate students throughout the world to learn fundamental chemistry and biology while they participate in the search for drugs to treat neglected diseases. D3, started at IUPUI, which has trained >1,800 IUPUI second semester lab student, has also been conducted at five different schools in the US and internationally, in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and, this past October, in Cuba.
While Marty pursued his research interests, teaching always has remained a passion. He is a firm believer that “the best way to learn something is to teach it” and he loves his interaction with students, especially seeing them improve (“…if someone was a C student when they arrived, I worked hard to get them to be a B student…”). In the course of his career at IUPUI he has mentored 55 undergraduate researchers, 35 M.S. and five Ph.D. students, 19 postdocs and four visiting scientists. His dedication to teaching was acknowledged when he was awarded IUPUI‟s 1995 Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2007 he was named as a Chancellor‟s Professor.
In his “retirement,” Marty continues his research and teaching as an active member of the department. He enjoys more time with his wife, Kitty, three children (Patrick, Michael and Kathleen) plus four grandchildren. At the same time he continues to pursue some of his interests outside of school. He loves music, especially classical music. While growing up he sang in groups at both his high school and college, and has sung in the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, performing with them in New York‟s Carnegie Hall.
Now, with a little more free time, Marty has been pursuing a long-term interest in tracing the genealogy of his family. “The O‟Donnell name comes from Ireland, of course!” as he spoke of tracing his roots back to 1833 and a small, poor village in Western Ireland where his great, great grandfather grew up, leaving Ireland and coming to the US on a sailing ship across the North Atlantic in November 1861! What a journey Marty‟s family and life have taken; from a small village in Ireland in the 19th century all the way to IUPUI in the 21st century. Our department has been a rich recipient of the wisdom, skills and experiences he gained along the way.
By: William Scott