Tomáš Hudlický
| Tomáš Hudlický | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1949 (age 75) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| 🏡 Residence | St. Catharines, Canada |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Rice University (1977) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Total synthesis |
| 🏅 Awards | Hanuš Memorial Medal (2015) R U Lemieux Award (2014) |
Tomáš Hudlický is an organic chemist currently working at Brock University, Canada. His research is mainly based on the synthesis of natural products using chemo-enzymatic routes. He has been active in this field for last four decades and has published more than 350 papers/patents. He is a son of late Prof. Miloš Hudlický, who was also an organic chemist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Biography[edit]
Hudlický was born in 1949 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In his teenage, the whole family moved to the U.S. where he earned his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor Ernest Wenkert in 1977. Later, he worked with Professor Wolfgang Oppolzer as a postdoctoral researcher. Hudlický joined as an assistant professor at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1978. He then became a full professor in 1988 after moving to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He spent a few years at University of Florida (1995-2003). Currently, at Brock University, he is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair.[1] He works on the total synthesis of natural products. He has published several generations of syntheses towards Amaryllidaceous alkaloids[2] and morphinans.
Although a strict academic, he is very popular amongst the students as a teacher.[3] He is also a president of the U. S. corporation called 'TDC Custom Synthesis & Contract Research'.[4]
Research[edit]
Total Syntheses[edit]
Since the onset of his career, Hudlický has been involved in the synthesis of terpenoids and alkaloids. He has published total syntheses of over fifty natural products and their derivatives. A few of those are vinburnine,[5] isocomene,[6] pancratistatin,[7] narciclasine,[8] codeine,[9] and other morphinans.
In the last thirty years, Hudlický has focused his efforts on chemo-enzymatic syntheses of natural products. The raw materials (mainly cis-diols) are obtained by microbial arene oxidation, furthermore, natural products are built upon using the cis-diols. His research articles are the classic examples of chiral pool synthesis. The pancratistatin based compound developed by Hudlický group has shown excellent in vitro activity against twenty types of cancer cells, and is being further investigated.[10]
Green Chemistry[edit]
In the field of Green Chemistry, he has coined a term ‘effective mass yield’ which can be calculated using following equation:[11]
Effective mass yield (%) = mass of products × 100 / mass of non-benign reagents
Hudlický defines benign substances as “those by-products, reagents or solvents that have no environmental risk associated with them, for example, water, low-concentration saline, dilute ethanol, autoclaved cell mass, etc”.
Scientific Ethics[edit]
Hudlický has always been insistent on following the scientific ethics. He published an article in 2010 explaining the practical limits of determining isolated yields, and isomeric ratios.[12] He argues that it is highly unlikely that any chemical reaction would afford >94% yield after work-up/extraction/chromatography. He along with his co-worker (Martina Wernerova) practically proved that there can be a number of errors in the chemistry lab operations, for instance, inaccuracies in weighing balance, inaccuracies from uncalibrated instruments etc. Hence the reporting of data must be done very carefully. The isolated yields must be given in a range. The enantiomeric or diastereomeric ratios must be published with a proof of calibration or a disclaimer.
Drug discovery and pharma industry blogger Derek Lowe wrote an article explaining the importance of Hudlický's paper.[13] To a great extent, it is true that the new generation of researchers fails to follow the scientific ethics and gets tempted towards increasing the number of publications and/or succumb to the pressure by supervisors and don't follow the correct practices/ethics set by the great chemists in the field. This results in non-reproducibility of the published data and nourishes the mindset behind a scientific fraud.
In the article (dedicated to Professor Dieter Seebach) published in 2012, Hudlický strongly criticised the culture of hype, malpractice, and scientific misconduct in the community and urged the researchers to avoid giving hyped and misleading titles to their articles.[14]
Publications[edit]
- Hudlicky, Tomas, ed. (1989–2001). Organic synthesis : theory and applications. Oxford: Elsevier Science. ISBN 9780080440378.CS1 maint: Date format (link) Search this book on
- Hudlicky, T.; Cebulak, M. (1993). Cyclitols and their Derivatives: A Handbook of Physical, Spectral and Synthetic Data 1st Edition. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471188629. Search this book on
- Hudlickây, Tomáés; Reed, Josephine W. (2007). The way of synthesis : evolution of design and methods for natural products. Weinheim : Chichester: Wiley-VCH ; John Wiley [distributor]. ISBN 978-3-527-32077-6. Search this book on
Awards[edit]
- Alfred Bader Award (2010, Canada)[15]
- R U Lemieux Award (2014, Canada)[16]
- Hanuš Memorial Medal (2015, Czech Republic)[17]
References[edit]
- ↑ Government of Canada, Industry Canada (29 November 2012). "Canada Research Chairs".
- ↑ M. Ghavre, J. Froese, M. Pour, T. Hudlicky, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55 (19), 5642-5691 | doi: 10.1002/anie.201508227
- ↑ "Thomas Hudlicky at Brock University - RateMyProfessors.com". www.ratemyprofessors.com.
- ↑ "TDC Custom Synthesis".
- ↑ Ernest Wenkert, Tomas Hudlicky, and H. D. Hollis Showalter "Short syntheses of eburnamonine via .beta.-oxycyclopropylcarbonyl and related intermediates" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1978, 100 (15), pp 4893–4894 | doi: 10.1021/ja00483a045
- ↑ Brindaban C.Ranu, Misha Kavka, Leslie A.Higgs, Tomas Hudlicky (1984). "Stereocontrolled Total Synthesis of Isocomene Sesquiterpenes". Tetrahedron Lett. 25 (23): 2447 | doi:10.1016/S0040-4039(01)81201-6
- ↑ X. Tian, T. Hudlicky, K. Kçnigsberger, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 3643 | doi: 10.1021/ja00117a046
- ↑ T. Hudlicky, U. Rinner, D. Gonzalez, H. Akgun, S. Schilling, P. Siengalewicz, T. A. Martinot, G. R. Pettit, J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 8726 | doi: 10.1021/jo020129m
- ↑ Omori, Alvaro T.; Finn, Kevin J.; Leisch, Hannes; Carroll, Robert J.; Hudlicky, "Tomas Chemoenzymatic Total Synthesis of (+)-Codeine by Sequential Intramolecular Heck Cyclizations via C-B-D Ring Construction" Synlett, 2007(18), 2859-2862. | doi: 10.1055/s-2007-990833
- ↑ "Brock scientist's patented compound is turning out to be a cancer killer".
- ↑ T. Hudlicky, D. A. Frey, L. Koroniak, C. D. Claeboe and L. E. Brammer, Green Chem., 1999, 57–59 | doi:10.1039/A901397K
- ↑ Martina Wernerova, Tomas Hudlicky “On the Practical Limits of Determining Isolated Product Yields and Ratios of Stereoisomers: Reflections, Analysis, and Redemption” Synlett, 2010(18), 2701-2707 | doi:10.1055/s-0030-1259018
- ↑ "99% Yield? That, Friends, Is Deception". 12 November 2010.
- ↑ Rolf Carlson and Tomas Hudlicky “On Hype, Malpractice, and Scientific Misconduct in Organic Synthesis” Helv. Chim. Acta, 2012, Vol. 95, 2052. | doi:10.1002/hlca.201200431
- ↑ "CSC Awards: Terms of Reference and Lists of Award Recipients" (PDF). Canadian Society for Society.
- ↑ "Tomas Hudlicky". The Chemical Institute of Canada.
- ↑ "Czech scientific groups honour Brock chemists". Brock University.
External links[edit]
- https://academictree.org/chemistry/peopleinfo.php?pid=61319
- https://brocku.ca/tomas-hudlicky/
- http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=636770
- https://www.synarchive.com/author/Tomas_Hudlicky
- http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2015/04/09/not_100_not_really
- https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/opinion-story/8196895-terry-fox-inspires-scientists/
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