The Way of Synthesis: Evolution of Design and Methods for Natural Products

"I think, as will many organic chemists, that the Hudlicky book will be the Bible of synthetic organic chemistry, the past, the present and the future. A hallmark publication."
―Victor Snieckus

This two-colored textbook presents not only synthetic ways to design organic compounds, it also contains a compilation of the most important total synthesis of the last 50 years with a comparative view of multiple designs for the same targets. It explains different tactics and strategies, making it easy to apply to many problems, regardless of the synthetic question in hand. Following a historical view of the evolution of synthesis, the book goes on to look at principles and issues impacting synthesis and design as well as principles and issues of methods. The sections on comparative design cover classics in terpenes and alkaloid synthesis, while a further section covers such miscellaneous syntheses as Maytansine, Palytoxin, Brevetoxin B and Indinavir. The whole is rounded off with a look at future perspectives and, what makes this textbook extraordinairy, with personal recollections of the chemists, who synthesized these fascinating compounds. With its attractive layout highlighting key parts and tactics using a second color, this is a useful tool for organic chemists, lecturers and students in chemistry, as well as those working in the chemical industry.

Tomas Hudlicky was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and emigrated to the US in 1968. He received his PhD in 1977 under Professor Ernest Wenkert, and subsequently spent a year at the University of Geneva working under Professor Wolfgang Oppolzer on the synthesis of isocomene. He began his academic career in 1978 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, before moving to Virginia tech in 1982 and then the University of Florida in 1995. In 2003, he accepted a chair at Brock University where he is currently professor of organic synthesis and biocatalysis. Professor Hudlicky's research interests include the development of enantioselective synthetic methods, bacterial dioxygenase-mediated degradation of aromatics and the isolation of chiral metabolites for use in asymmetric synthesis.

Josephine Wiley Reed was born and raised in North Carolina, receiving her PhD under Professor David Kingston at Virginia Tech in 1988. She holds a BA in biology with chemistry minor from the Appalachian State University and a BA in English from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. She has taught organic chemistry courses at Virginia Tech and has held the position of Senior Research Associate at Virginia Tech, University of Florida and Brock University since 1989. She has also served as the editorial assistant for the North American Editorial Office of J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans 1 and 2, as a member of the organizing committee for the Symposium on the Latest Trends in Organic Synthesis, and as a consultant to TDC Research, Inc, a custom synthesis company.