Weinreb Named a 2011 Fellow of the American Chemical Society

Steven M. Weinreb, the Russell and Mildred Marker Professor of Natural Products Chemistry at Penn State University, has been named a 2011 Fellow of the American Chemical Society, which recognizes scientists with "outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and the society." Weinreb's main research interest is heterocyclic chemistry — the study of compounds that have atoms of at least two different elements. He is known for his extensive research in the synthesis of natural products and the development of new synthetic methods. Throughout all of Weinreb's research projects, heavy emphasis is placed on developing a new synthetic methodology of potentially wide application in organic chemistry and pharmacology.

Weinreb's previous awards include a 2010 Priestly Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching in Chemistry and a 2005 American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award. In addition, he earned a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1983, a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award in 1975, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1975. Weinreb has served as a member of the editorial advisory boards of numerous scientific journals, including Current Medicinal Chemistry, Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry, and Archives of Pharmaceutical Research. He also has served as senior editor of the Journal of Organic Chemistry and regional editor of Letters in Organic Chemistry. He has been a reviewer of grant applications for the National Institutes of Health and many other research organizations.

Weinreb has published over 230 scientific papers in journals such as Synthesis, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Organic Letters, and the Journal of Organic Chemistry, and he has written numerous textbooks and book chapters. He is a frequently invited lecturer at universities, research institutes, and industrial research centers throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, and he has received more than 40 research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other research foundations. Throughout his career, he has mentored and supervised over 70 graduate students and over 50 post-doctoral students, including two National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellows.

Weinreb joined the University in 1978 as an associate professor of chemistry and became a professor in 1980. He was named a Marker Professor in 1987. He was the head of the chemistry department from 1994 to 1998.

Weinreb earned a doctoral degree at the University of Rochester in 1967 and a bachelor's degree at Cornell University in 1963.