Nobel Legacy
Nobel Legacy
UD’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is the home of two Nobel Prize laureates, alumnus Dr. Daniel Nathans and the late professor Richard Heck. In addition, work by current faculty member Joseph Fox was cited by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry in 2022.
About the Nobel Laureates
Daniel Nathans
University of Delaware Class of 1950
1978 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Dr. Daniel Nathans is generally regarded as one of the founders of molecular biology and modern genetics. In 1978, while professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chair of the microbiology department, he received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics. His research laid the groundwork for the mapping of the human genome.
Daniel Nathans received his B.S. degree in chemistry with distinction in 1950. As a student he enjoyed the study of chemistry, philosophy and literature. In his senior year, he was president of the Student Affiliates chapter of the American Chemical Society, and vice-president of the Philosophy Club. After UD Nathans earned his M.D. degree from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis Missouri, intending to practicing medicine in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. While a medical student, he spent a summer working on vitamin C in the laboratory of Oliver Lowry where he discovered a love of research and the chemical aspects of biology.
Richard Heck
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
2010 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry “For Palladium-Catalyzed Cross Couplings”
In Brown Laboratory, Professor Richard Heck discovered the palladium-catalyzed cross coupling of aryl halides and olefins. Named for its inventor, the Heck Reaction transformed modern organic chemistry, changing how carbon–carbon bonds are made, and ushering in a revolution of palladium-catalyzed reactions. By advancing pharmaceutical, materials, chemical, and biotechnology industries, the Heck reaction has impacts throughout our lives.
Professor Richard Heck joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1971. He developed an early passion for chemistry inspired by gardening with his father. He received both his B.S. (1952) and his Ph.D. (1954) degrees in chemistry at University of California at Los Angeles. After postdoctoral work at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland with Vladimir Prelog, and at UCLA, he took a position with Hercules Company in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1957. At the University of Delaware, Heck led a highly productive research program and taught graduate and undergraduate courses. He retired from the University of Delaware in 1989.
