On 13 June 2012, the Chemistry Centre in London played host to Professors Akira Suzuki and Ei-ichi Negishi, who were recently made Honorary Fellows of the RSC. Speaking not only in front of a packed house, their lectures were also broadcast live on the Chemistry World website

Professor Suzuki (Hokkaido University) spoke about his inspiration for becoming a chemist. He started out studying maths, yet an organic chemistry textbook fascinated him so much that he switched subjects. He ended his talk by appealing to the audience to use his “Suzuki cross-coupling reaction” to make useful products; this would make him very happy!
Professor Negishi (Purdue University) spoke about “The Magical Power of Transition Metals”, arguing that transition metal catalysts are sustainable because they give selective products and can be reused many times. He was so passionate about his research that he could have spoken for hours!


The lectures ended with a pertinent question: “What is the most important issue that organic synthesis should be helping to solve?” Professor Negishi answered that climate change is the most pressing issue of our time, and organic chemists can help us meet this challenge by finding a way to catalytically convert carbon dioxide into something that won’t cause global warming. He even said that it is a project that he is personally working on... watch this space!