Recipient of the 2023 CME STEM Leadership Award for Propelling Science, Karl Barry Sharpless is one of only five Laureates who have received a Nobel Prize twice among nearly 1,000 Nobel Laureates. In 2001 for developing the first chiral catalysts and in 2022 for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

Sharpless is a distinguished American stereochemist and the W.M. Keck Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where he has led groundbreaking research since 1990. His work has revolutionized organic synthesis through the invention of click chemistry—a modular, efficient approach to building complex molecules via selective, high-yielding reactions—and bioorthogonal chemistry, enabling precise chemical modifications in living systems. Earlier contributions include pioneering chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions, such as asymmetric epoxidation and dihydroxylation, which enable the selective production of enantiomerically pure compounds.

Sharpless earned his B.A. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1963 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University in 1968. Following postdoctoral work at Stanford and Harvard, he held faculty positions at MIT and Stanford before joining Scripps Research.
He is one of only five individuals to receive two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry: in 2001 (shared) for chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions, and in 2022 (shared with Carolyn R. Bertozzi and Morten Meldal) for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. Other honors include the 2023 CME STEM Leadership Award from the Chemical Marketing & Economics (CME) Group, recognizing his transformative impact on sustainable innovation and materials science; the Wolf Prize in Chemistry; and election to the National Academy of Sciences. Sharpless’s influential publications appear in leading journals, including those of the American Chemical Society, where his work on selective catalysis and click reactions continues to shape synthetic chemistry, drug discovery, materials development, and interdisciplinary applications in life sciences.

2023 ACS Fall POLY: CME NASA Symposium Abstract

Click Chemistry: New Directions

Abstract Body: Click chemistry was defined by Kolb, Finn, and Sharpless in a 2001 Angewandte Chemie article. It has evolved substantially since then, to the point of having applications in most all fields of pure and applied chemistry. Thanks to Craig Hawker and Charlie Hoyle [thiol ene click reaction] it got off to a very fast start in materials science where making serial connections with extraordinary reliability is often the central requirement. The azide•terminal alkyne  triazole synthesis, aka CuAAC, was discovered independently in 2002 by the Meldal and Sharpless groups in Copenhagen and La Jolla, respectively. CuAAC quickly emerged as the quintessential click reaction for its near perfect yields over multiple serial steps. Polymer creating reactions that tolerate the dioxygen and water of earth’s atmosphere are rare to non-existent. Both CuAAC processes and our newer 2014 discovered SuFEx catalysis to polysulfate linkages are exceptional in this regard. Today I highlight the properties of some SuFEx polysulfate polymers which have emerged in a collaboration between Scripps and the Molecular Foundry Lab at Berkeley. The phenomenon mediated by these polymers is to shield electric capacitors from the destructive effects of both high temperatures and high electric fields, more effectively than the existing materials for this purpose. The question is, how can a thin film of polymer, a condensed chemical phase, shield against the electromagnetic field force of physics. Our latest results and thoughts are presented.