UF professor creates chair in organic chemistry

May 30, 2013

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An 84-year-old chemistry professor, who came to the University of Florida in 1980 when the retirement age in his native country threatened to shorten his career, has pledged $1.5 million to fund a chair in the chemistry department.

Alan Katritzky has established the chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to help advance UF’s research efforts in organic chemistry.

Katritzky said UF’s chemistry department has “tremendous advantages” and has the potential to join the ranks of the top 10 chemistry departments in the country.

“I felt the department could have a great future and that I could help it along in the right direction,” he said.

A British native, Katritzky founded the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K., where he served as dean from 1963 to 1970 and again from 1976 to 1980. He also spent six weeks at UF as a distinguished visiting professor in 1976 before making the permanent move to Gainesville in 1980.

UF attracted him because of its flexible retirement age, unlike in Europe, where workers usually must retire at age 65. “I felt I had a lot more to offer,” he said.

He is UF’s Kenan Professor of Chemistry and director of the university’s Florida Center for Heterocyclic Compounds, which focuses on scientific research, publishing and teaching. He also leads the Katritzky Research Group, which includes graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and visiting scholars from all over the world.

The Katritzky Chair of Heterocyclic Chemistry will be filled by an eminent scholar whose research will focus on developments in heterocyclic chemistry, which deals with the preparation, characteristics and uses of heterocycles — cyclic organic compounds that contain atoms of sulfur, oxygen or nitrogen, in addition to carbon. The chair’s research will include development of new synthetic and computational methodologies.

Among other things, heterocyclic compounds are known to regulate hereditary information, and they play a vital role in virtually all biological processes, including photosynthesis. An understanding of heterocyclic chemistry is essential to anyone involved in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.

The chair will be involved in both graduate and undergraduate teaching, including supervision of undergraduate student research. He or she will also be involved in the oversight of Arkivoc (a free, open access journal of organic chemistry) and the annual Florida Heterocyclic and Synthetic Conference, known as FloHet, which features lectures from internationally renowned scientists along with short courses in organic chemistry.

William Dolbier, chair of UF’s department of chemistry, said Katritzky’s endowment of this professorship is an important step toward reaching the department’s goal of achieving increased national and international prominence. He added that the research carried out by the Katritzky Professor could lead to the development of new pharmaceuticals and anti-cancer agents and could include entrepreneurial activity leading to new start-up companies in the community.

“We hope the Katritzky Chair will attract a faculty member from the top echelon of the chemistry community,” Dolbier said.