The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 is being shared by Carolyn R Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K Barry Sharpless, the latter winning the second Nobel of his career. The three scientists have been awarded for their work in ‘click chemistry‘, in which molecules snap together fast and firmly, without the need for a long, complicated process and too many unwanted byproducts. Their work has applications in the field of medical science, including the treatment of cancer.
Let us know all about the educational qualification of the three Nobel winning scientists this year:
Carolyn R Bertozzi
Carolyn Bertozzi received her AB summa cum laude in chemistry from Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Joe Grabowski on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. While an undergraduate, she played in various bands. Her most notable one was Bored of Education, which included future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
After graduating from Harvard in 1988, she worked at Bell Labs. Bertozzi completed her PhD in chemistry at University of California, Berkeley in 1993 with Mark Bednarski, working on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. While at Berkeley, she discovered that viruses can bind to sugars in the body. The discovery led her to her current field of research, glycobiology.
Read | Celebrity Education: Know Qualifications of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics
Morten Meldal
Meldal received BS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), his Ph.D. work was supervised by Klaus Bock and focused on the synthetic chemistry of oligosaccharides. From 1983-1988 he was an independent research associate in organic chemistry at DTU and the University of Copenhagen.
During 1985 and 1986 he performed postdoctoral work at Cambridge University; he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Medical Research Council Center, Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In 1996 he was appointed assistant professor at DTU. Since 1998 he has led the synthesis group in the Department of Chemistry of the Carlsberg Laboratory and since 1997, he has served as head of the Solid-Phase Organic Chemistry and Enzymatic Reaction Center (SPOCC).
K Barry Sharpless
Sharpless was born April 28, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Friends’ Central School in 1959, and continued his studies at Dartmouth College, earning an AB in 1963. Sharpless originally planned to attend medical school after his undergraduate degree, but his research professor convinced him to continue his education in chemistry. He earned his PhD in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1968 under Eugene van Tamelen.
He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University with James P Collman, working on organometallic chemistry. Sharpless then moved to Harvard University, studying enzymology in Konrad E Bloch’s lab. Sharpless was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
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