Ben Feringa

Bernard Lucas Feringa
Born 18 May 1951
Barger-Compascuum
Residence Groningen, Netherlands
Nationality Dutch
Fields Organic Chemistry
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Photochemistry
Institutions University of Groningen, 1984-present
Royal Dutch Shell, 1979-1984
Alma mater University of Groningen, PhD
University of Groningen, BS
Thesis Asymmetric oxidation of phenols. Atropisomerism and optical activity (1978)
Doctoral advisor Prof Hans Wijnberg
Known for Molecular switches/motors, Homogeneous catalysis, stereochemistry, photochemistry
Spouse Betty Feringa
Website
benferinga.com

Bernard Lucas "Ben" Feringa (born 1951) is a synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis. He is the Jacobus Van't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences,[1][2] at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry,[3] University of Groningen, Netherlands, and an Academy Professor and Chair of Board of the Science Division of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.[4]

Career

Feringa received his PhD titled "Asymmetric oxidation of phenols. Atropisomerism and optical activity"[5] at the University of Groningen under the supervision of the late Professor Hans Wijnberg, graduating in 1978. Following a short period at Shell in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, he was appointed as lecturer at the University of Groningen in 1984 and Full Professor, succeeding Prof Wijnberg, in 1988. His early career was focused on homogenous catalysis and oxidation catalysis, and especially on stereochemistry with major contributions in the field of enantioselective catalysis, including monophos ligand[6] used in asymmetric hydrogenation, asymmetric conjugate additions of organometallic reagents, including the highly reactive organolithium reagents and organic photochemistry and stereochemistry. In the 1990s, Feringa's work in stereochemistry led to major contributions in photochemistry, resulting in the first monodirectional light driven molecular rotary motor[7] and later a molecular car (a so-called nanocar) driven by electrical impulses.[8]

Ben Feringa holds over 30 patents and has published over 650 peer reviewed research papers to date, cited more than 30,000 times and has an h-index in excess of 90.[9] He has guided over 100 PhD students over his career.[10]

Contributions to research

Feringa’s research achievements range from fundamental contributions in modern stereochemistry and chirality to the rapidly developing field of molecular nanotechnology and dynamic molecular systems with seminal contributions to organic synthesis, asymmetric catalysis, molecular recognition and self-assembly. Probably the most widely known work that Feringa has performed involves molecular switches and motors, which have been centered on stereochemistry, asymmetric catalysis and dynamic molecular systems. His team at the University of Groningen has pioneered the control and use of dynamic functions and molecular motion.

The early introduction of chiroptical molecular switches,[11] based on the design of the first chiral overcrowded alkenes [12] and the demonstration of optically controlled molecular switching and amplification of chirality in mesoscopic systems,[13] lead to molecular rotary motors in which chirality plays a critical role in achieving the same function achieved by nature, for example, the unidirectional rotation of retinal in rhodopsin.[14] This work led to the discovery of the world’s first unidirectional molecular rotary motor[15] and this work has been laying the ground-work for a key component of future molecular nanotechnology i.e. nanomachines and nanorobots powered by molecular motors. Feringa’s design and synthesis of nanomolecular machines, specifically molecular switches and molecular motors, have initiated major novel approaches towards complex and dynamic chemical systems and the dynamic control of function.

Applications of molecular switches developed in his group include responsive materials and surfaces such as liquid crystals and electrochromic devices for optoelectronics, responsive gels, polymers and light-switchable protein channels for nanoscale drug delivery systems, anion sensing, responsive catalysts and photopharmacology as well as entirely novel approaches using responsive drugs toward anticancer agents, antibiotic treatment and antibiotic resistance, and biofilm formation. Interfacing molecular motors with the macroscopic world by surface assembly,[16] demonstrates that they actually can perform work and exert a macroscopic effect [17] and drive molecular systems out-of-equilibrium. Several of these discoveries were selected for the list of most important chemical discoveries of the year by Chemical & Engineering News.

Recently a molecular ‘nanocar’ was constructed [18] was highlighted in international daily newspapers & magazines worldwide and selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as one of the 10 major discoveries in sciences worldwide. Towards the future discipline of systems chemistry, the development of a multistage chiral catalysts [19] which comprises an integrated supramolecular system that brings together molecular recognition, chirality transfer, catalysis, stereoelectronic control and enantio-selectivity while all these processes can be enabled or disabled via an internal motor function, moves the design and application of molecular motors to a whole new level of sophistication.

Honors and awards

Feringa's contributions to the molecular sciences have been recognized with the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Nagoya Medal of Organic Chemistry, the Spinoza Prize in 2004 and the 2012 Grand Prix Scientifique Cino del Duca.[20] In 2008 he was knighted by her majesty the Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.[21]

Feringa is a fellow, since 2006,[22] and Academy Professor, since 2008, of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. In 2004, he was elected foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected, in 1998, as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and, in 2013, was appointed to the Council of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Notable other research awards which recognise Feringas contributions to synthetic methodologies and catalysis include the Novartis Chemistry Lectureship Award 2000-2001, Solvias Ligand Contest Award (shared with John Hartwig, Yale University (USA), the Tetrahedron Chair at the BOSS symposium 2012, the Organic Stereochemistry Award 2011 of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, the Lily European Distinguished Science Award, 2013, the Nagoya Gold Medal, Nagoya, Japan, 2013 and the Yamada-Koga Award, Tokyo, Japan, 2013

A large part of Feringa's research career has focused on molecular nanotechnology and especially molecular photochemistry and stereochemistry. His contributions in these areas have been recognised in research awards including Körber European Science Prize 2003, the Spinoza Prize 2004, Prelog Gold Medal 2005 (ETH-Zürich), Switzerland, James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society 2007, USA, European Research Council Advanced Grant 2008, Paracelsus Award[23] of the Swiss Chemical Society, 2008, the Chirality Medal for distinguished contributions to all aspects of stereochemistry, 2010, the decennial Van‘t Hoff medal 2011 of the Genootschap ter Bevordering van de Natuur-, Genees-, en Heelkunde, the Humboldt award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2012, Germany, Theodor Föster Award of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) & Bunsen-Society for Physical Chemistry, Germany, 2014 and the Arthur C. Cope Late Career Scholars Award, American Chemical Society, USA 2015. In November 2015 he was the recipient of the "Chemistry for the future Solvay prize",[24] which was awarded for "for his work on groundbreaking research on molecular motors, a research field that paves the way to new therapeutic and technological applications with nanorobots."[25]

In addition Feringa is a former President of the Bürgenstock Conference 2009, Switzerland, an elected member of the Academia Europeae 2010, the Royal Society of Chemistry Award for distinguished service, 2013 and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Medal of the Polish Chemical Society, 2013, Poland.

Professional activities

Ben Feringa has served as editorial board member for several journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, including Chemical Communications (till 2012), the Faraday Transactions of the Royal Society, and is Chair of the Editorial Board of Chemistry World. He is the founding Scientific Editor(2002-2006) of the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. In addition he is an editorial (advisory) board member for the journals Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis, Adv. Phys. Org. Chem., Topics in Stereochemistry, Chemistry, an Asian Journal published by Wiley, and advisory board member for the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society published by the American Chemical Society.

Feringa is a co-founder of the contract research company Selact (now a part of Kiadis), which was originally established to provide services in the area of organic synthesis but later developed high throughput screening methods.

References

  1. ↑ "University of Groningen". http://www.rug.nl/staff/b.l.feringa/. External link in |website= (help);
  2. ↑ "University of Groningen". http://www.rug.nl/news-and-events/people-perspectives/scientists-in-focus/feringa. External link in |website= (help);
  3. ↑ "Stratingh Institute for Chemistry". http://www.rug.nl/research/stratingh/. External link in |website= (help);
  4. ↑ "Ben Feringa". www.knaw.nl/members. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Asymmetric oxidation of phenols. Atropisomerism and optical activity.
  6. ↑ Van Den Berg, M.; Minnaard, A. J.; Schudde, E. P.; Van Esch, J.; De Vries; A. H. M.; De Vries, J. G.; Feringa, B. L. (2000). "Highly enantioselective rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation with monodentate ligands". Journal of the American Chemical Society 122 (46): 11539–11540. doi:10.1021/ja002507f. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Feringa, Ben L.; Koumura, Nagatoshi; Zijlstra, Robert W. J.; van Delden, Richard A.; Harada, Nobuyuki (1999). "Light-driven monodirectional molecular rotor". Nature 401 (6749): 152–155. doi:10.1038/43646. PMID 10490022.
  8. ↑ Kudernac, Tibor; Ruangsupapichat, Nopporn; Parschau, Manfred; Maciá, Beatriz; Katsonis, Nathalie; Harutyunyan, Syuzanna R.; Ernst, Karl-Heinz; Feringa, Ben L. (2011). "Electrically driven directional motion of a four-wheeled molecule on a metal surface". Nature 479 (7372): 208–211. doi:10.1038/nature10587. PMID 22071765.
  9. ↑ "webofknowledge.com". Webofscience(TM). Thomson Rueters. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  10. ↑ "Professor of Chemistry Ben Feringa supervises his 100 th PhD student". University of Groningen. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  11. ↑ B.L.Feringa, W.F. Jager, B.de Lange, E.W. Meijer, Chiroptical Molecular Switch, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 5468-5470
  12. ↑ B.L.Feringa, H. Wynberg, Torsionally distorted olefins - resolution of cis-4 and trans-4,4'-bi-1,1',2,2',3,3'-hexahydrophenanthrylidene, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1977,99, 602-603
  13. ↑ N.P.M. Huck, W.F. Jager, B.de Lange, B.L. Feringa, Dynamic control and amplification of chirality, Science 1996, 273, 1686
  14. ↑ Strambi, A.; Durbeej, B.; Ferre, N.; Olivucci, M. (22 November 2010). "Anabaena sensory rhodopsin is a light-driven unidirectional rotor". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (50): 21322–21326. doi:10.1073/pnas.1015085107.
  15. ↑ Feringa, Ben L.; Koumura, Nagatoshi; Zijlstra, Robert W. J.; van Delden, Richard A.; Harada, Nobuyuki (1999). "Light-driven monodirectional molecular rotor". Nature 401 (6749): 152–155. doi:10.1038/43646. PMID 10490022.
  16. ↑ Van Delden, RA; ter Wiel, MKJ; Pollard, MM; Vicario, J; Koumura, N; Feringa, BL. "Unidirectional molecular motor on a gold surface". Nature 2005 (437): 1337–1340. doi:10.1038/nature04127.
  17. ↑ Eelkema, JJR; Pollard, MM; Vicario, J; Katsonis, N; Serrano Ramon, B; Bastiaansen, CWM; Broer, DJ; Feringa, BL (2006). "Rotation of a microscopic object by a light-driven molecular motor". Nature 440 (7081): 163. doi:10.1038/440163a.
  18. ↑ Kudernac, Tibor; Ruangsupapichat, Nopporn; Parschau, Manfred; Maciá, Beatriz; Katsonis, Nathalie; Harutyunyan, Syuzanna R.; Ernst, Karl-Heinz; Feringa, Ben L. (2011). "Electrically driven directional motion of a four-wheeled molecule on a metal surface". Nature 479 (7372): 208–211. doi:10.1038/nature10587. PMID 22071765.
  19. ↑ Wang, J.; Feringa, B.L. (2011). "Dynamic control of chiral space in a catalytic asymmetric reaction using a molecular motor". Science 331: 1429–1432. doi:10.1126/science.1199844.
  20. ↑ http://grands-prix-2012.institut-de-france.fr/fondation-simone-et-cino-del-duca. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help);
  21. ↑ "Lintjes 2008 University of Groningen". http://www.rug.nl/news/2008/04/057_08. External link in |website= (help);
  22. ↑ "Ben Feringa". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  23. ↑ "Paracelsus Prize". Swiss Chemical Society. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  24. ↑ http://www.solvay.com/en/innovation/solvay-prize/2015-prize/index.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ↑ http://www.solvay.com/en/innovation/solvay-prize/2015-prize/index.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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