MacMillan wins awards for organic chemistry

David MacMillan, the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry, has been named a recipient two awards for his work.

He will receive the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award at the society's meeting in Boston in August and will speak at a symposium in his honor. In addition, he will be honored with the Mukaiyama Award, presented by the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, and deliver a lecture at that society's summer seminar in September.

The Cope Award, intended to recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry, includes a $5,000 cash prize and a $40,000 unrestricted research grant. The $5,000 Mukaiyama Award is presented each year to an individual age 45 or younger who has made outstanding contributions to synthetic organic chemistry.

MacMillan's work involves the development of new chemical reactions that allow the rapid construction of biomedically important natural products, such as Diazonamide A, a potent inhibitor of cancer cells, and Frondosin B, a molecule that will be used in the study of autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and psoriasis.

MacMillan came to Princeton this summer from the California Institute of Technology, where he had been on the faculty since 2000.