Nobel Prize Laureate Scientist. He was a chemist whose work in using palladium as a catalyst in producing organic molecules earned him the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He received both his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California Los Angeles. Heck did his postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and at UCLA. In 1956 he joined Hercules Powder in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1968 Heck used palladium as a catalyst in the synthesis of organic molecules. "A carbon atom in an organic molecule binds to a palladium atom. When a carbon atom from another organic molecule binds to the palladium atom, the carbon atoms then bind to each other, ejecting the palladium and forming a new molecule. This reaction became known as the Heck reaction (or the Mizoroki-Heck reaction after Japanese chemist Mizoroki Tsutomu, who developed a more practical version of Heck’s original reaction). The technique of palladium catalysis found extensive use in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and electronics industries." Heck became a professor of chemistry at the University of Delaware in 1971 from which he retired in 1989. In 2010 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with fellow chemists Negishi Ei-ichi and Suzuki Akira.
Nobel Prize Laureate Scientist. He was a chemist whose work in using palladium as a catalyst in producing organic molecules earned him the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He received both his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California Los Angeles. Heck did his postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and at UCLA. In 1956 he joined Hercules Powder in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1968 Heck used palladium as a catalyst in the synthesis of organic molecules. "A carbon atom in an organic molecule binds to a palladium atom. When a carbon atom from another organic molecule binds to the palladium atom, the carbon atoms then bind to each other, ejecting the palladium and forming a new molecule. This reaction became known as the Heck reaction (or the Mizoroki-Heck reaction after Japanese chemist Mizoroki Tsutomu, who developed a more practical version of Heck’s original reaction). The technique of palladium catalysis found extensive use in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and electronics industries." Heck became a professor of chemistry at the University of Delaware in 1971 from which he retired in 1989. In 2010 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with fellow chemists Negishi Ei-ichi and Suzuki Akira.
Bio by: Mr. Badger Hawkeye
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