Chemistry International
Vol. 22, No. 4
July 2000
Awards
Lester
A. Mitscher Wins American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry
Award
Prof.
Lester A. Mitscher, Titular Member of IUPAC's Commission on Training
and Development (VII.M.2) of the Medicinal Chemistry Section (VII.M),
received the 11th ACS Division
of Medicinal Chemistry Award at the 2th National Medicinal Chemistry
Symposium held 13-17 June 2000 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. The award
was established by ACS in 1979 "to recognize outstanding achievement
in the sciences that contribute to the field of medicinal chemistry".
After a distinguished career at Lederle Laboratories as
a group leader in antibiotics, Prof. Mitscher joined the faculty of
Ohio State University, where he served as professor of natural products
chemistry in the College of Pharmacy. A faculty member at the University
of Kansas since 1975, Prof. Mitscher has been chairman of the department
of medicinal chemistry for 16 years. Recently retired as editor of Medicinal
Research Reviews, Prof. Mitscher has had affiliations with the editorial
boards of 13 journals, has coauthored or edited 6 books, and has authored
almost 250 scientific manuscripts.
Prof. Mitscher's work in natural product chemistry, ranging
from development and popularization of circular dichroism for structural
elucidation to isolation of novel entities using bioassay-guided fractionation,
has gained him great renown. His recent research has focused on identifying
and developing new antimicrobial agents, such as those based on tetracycline
and quinolone. His isolation of novel antioxidants from green tea has
attracted considerable interest among colleagues and in the mass media.
Prof. Mitscher won the Ernest H. Volwiler Award in 1985
and the Smissman Bristol-Myers Squibb Award of the ACS Division of Medicinal
Chemistry in 1989. In 1997, he was named Distinguished Alumnus of Wayne
State University, from which he received a B.S. degree in pharmacy and
a Ph.D. degree in the laboratory of Prof. Carl Djerassi.