Tetrahedron Symposium Speaker Biography

Professor Tohru Fukuyama

Professor Tohru Fukuyama was born in 1948 in Anjo, Japan. After receiving his B.S. and M.S. at Nagoya University, he earned his Ph.D. in 1977 at Harvard University under the direction of Professor Yoshito Kishi. He remained in Dr. Kishi’s group as a postdoctoral fellow until 1978 when he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rice University. After seventeen years on the faculty at Rice University, he came back to his home country and joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo in 1995, where he is currently Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Professor Fukuyama has primarily been involved in the total synthesis of complex natural products of biological and medicinal importance. He often chooses target molecules that require development of new concepts in synthetic design and/or new methodology for their total synthesis. The synthetically useful methodologies he has developed include deprotection of electron-rich, aromatic protecting groups with ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN), conversion of thiol esters to aldehydes with triethylsilane and palladium on carbon, radical-mediated synthesis of indoles from o-isocyanostyrenes and o-alkenyl thioanilides, and conversion of primary amines to secondary amines by way of 2-nitrobenzenesulfonamides as well as 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonamides. Professor Fukuyama has also achieved total syntheses of a number of densely functionalized heterocyclic natural products, including (±)-cyanocycline A, (±)-mitomycin C, (+)-gelsemine, (–)-CP-263,114, (+)-vinblastine, and ecteinascidin 743, to name a few.

In recognition of his pioneering contributions to the advancement of organic chemistry, Professor Fukuyama has received ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1993), Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award, Japan (2002), ISHC Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry (2003), ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2004), and The PSJ Award (Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award, 2006).