Nobelprize.org: Richard Heck, Ei’ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki are the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The three researchers have each devised chemical processes that use a palladium catalyst to form carbon–carbon bonds between certain types of organic molecule. In processes named after each of the winners, reactants bind to palladium, whose empty 5 s orbital provides a venue for the reactants to adjust their molecular orbitals to configurations that favor binding. Naturally occurring drugs, including the anticancer drug Taxol (shown here), are among the molecules that form via palladium-catalyzed reactions. Heck is affiliated with the University of Delaware in Newark. Negishi is affiliated with Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Suzuki is affiliated with Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
