Sarah E. Reisman facts for kids

Sarah Elizabeth Reisman is a leading chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She is also the head of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering division there. Her work involves creating complex natural products, which are special chemicals found in nature. She also develops new ways to make these chemicals using advanced methods.

Professor Reisman has received important honors for her work. These include the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 2013 and the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Organic Synthesis in 2014.

Education and Early Career

College Studies

Sarah Reisman earned her first degree in chemistry from Connecticut College in 2001. While there, she worked with Professor Timo V. Ovaska. Her research focused on making complex natural products called tetracyclic terpenoids, including one known as phorbol.

Graduate School

Reisman continued her studies at Yale University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2006. She worked with Professor John L. Wood. Her main project was to create a specific natural product called (±)-welwitindolinone A isonitrile. Her work involved developing new chemical steps to build this molecule.

Postdoctoral Research

After her Ph.D., Reisman became a postdoctoral fellow. This means she did more research after her doctorate. She worked at Harvard University with Professor Eric N. Jacobsen. During this time, she helped create a new way to make molecules using a special type of catalyst called a thiourea organocatalyst.

Research at Caltech

Sarah Reisman started her own research lab at Caltech in 2008 as an assistant professor. By 2014, she became a full professor.

Her lab focuses on two main areas. First, they work on making complex natural products. Second, they develop new chemical reactions. These two areas often help each other in her research.

Creating Natural Products

The Reisman lab has successfully created many complex natural products for the first time. For example, they were the first to make (–)-acetylaranotin, 40 years after it was first discovered. They also created (–)-maoecrystal Z, (–)-8-demethoxyrunanine, and (–)-cepharatines A, C, and D.

One of their big achievements was making (+)-ryanodol in only 15 steps. This was a huge improvement, as the previous shortest method took 35 steps. In 2019, her team also published the first complete creation of (+)-perseanol in the scientific journal Nature. Other natural products they have made include (+)-naseseazines A and B, (+)-salvileucalin B, (+)-psiguadial B, and (+)-pleuromutilin.

Developing New Chemical Reactions

Her group also works on creating new ways to perform chemical reactions. They often use a method called nickel catalysis. They also explore cycloadditions and reactions that use SmI2 to create rings of atoms.

Awards and Honors

Sarah Reisman has received many awards for her important contributions to chemistry.

• 2022 – Inhoffen Medal
• 2020 – American Chemical Society Elias J. Corey Award
• 2019 – Margaret Faul Women in Chemistry Award
• 2018 – Lucy Pickett Lecture, Mount Holyoke College
• 2015–2017 – Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator at the California Institute of Technology
• 2015 – Science News "Ten early-career scientists on their way to critical acclaim"
• 2014 – Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Organic Synthesis
• 2013 – Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society
• 2012 – Inaugural American Chemical Society WCC's Rising Star Award winner
• 2012 – Cottrell Scholar Award
• 2012 – Novartis Early Career Award
• 2012 – Amgen Young Investigator Award

She also received the Boehringer Ingelheim New Faculty Grant, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a 5-year NSF CAREER Award in 2011.

See also

In Spanish: Sarah E. Reisman para niños