The fourth IUPUI Welcher Lecture, delivered by Prof. John Hartwig, can be summarized in one simple sentence: Catalysis is at the core of human progress and technologies.
In a thoughtful manner, Prof. Hartwig, led the general audience from how we represent chemical structures in drawings through how functional groups (sets of atoms with characteristic reactivity) affect the properties and biological activities of molecules we encounter every day. Because of its ability to interact with other atoms, nitrogen plays an outsized role in human progress. A little over half of all nitrogen atoms in our bodies, Dr. Hartwig argued, come from the Haber-Bosch process (the reaction that transforms nitrogen gas into ammonia fertilizer). This metal-catalyzed reaction is required for most of the food production on earth, sustaining the lives of over 8 billion people. Similarly, while vinegar (acetic acid) can be made from wine, the majority of its production comes from an industrial metal-catalyzed process that transforms carbon monoxide into acetic acid, which is then used as a building block for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, plastics, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs are commonly used as screens for your TV and your smartphones). Obviously, each of these final products also require the use of metal catalysis at different stages of their syntheses. Dr. Hartwig, who has spent his career developing novel catalysts, described the meticulous study of the mechanisms or “catalytic cycles” of nickel, copper, and iridium reactions. Some of the reactions that he has developed have been adopted by industry to access life-saving drugs, such as Losartan. By blending his understanding of transition metals with biochemistry, Prof. Hartwig discussed recent innovations in iridium-containing cytochromes and artificial metalloenzymes, useful for selective organic synthesis.
Dr. Hartwig received his BA in Chemistry from Princeton University and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, to which he has returned as the Henry Rapoport Chair of Science and Professor of Chemistry. A member of the National Academy of Science and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Hartwig is the winner of the 2021 American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Award which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry. He has also been awarded both the 2019 Wolf Prize (shared with Stephen Buchwald) and the Royal Society Centenary Prize for outstanding science communicators.
We were fortunate to have the fantastic opportunity to share our pursuits in the Department with Dr. Hartwig over two days and for him to take part in conversations with both the graduate and undergraduate students at IUPUI. This was an outstanding send-off as we look ahead to carrying on the Welcher Lecture tradition next fall as IU Indianapolis (IUI).