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F. G. West

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Professor West was born and raised in southern Arizona, and received his undergraduate training (Chemistry, with Honors and Summa cum Laude) at the University of Arizona in Tucson. While there, he performed research with Victor Hruby on conformationally restricted analogues of the peptide hormone oxytocin, and developed one of the first HPLC-based methods for amino acid analysis of peptide hydrolysates (publication 1). He then moved to Madison, Wisconsin where he was an NSF Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin in the labs of Professor Edwin Vedejs. His doctoral research concerned the generation of nonstabilized azomethine ylides using desilylation methods its application to the synthesis of pyrrolizidine alkaloids (publications 2-3). He spent two years at Columbia University as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Gilbert Stork, working on radical cyclization-based approaches to the cardenolides (publication 23).

Professor West began his independent career at the University of Utah in 1988. Initially, his program focused on the use of pyran-4-one photochemistry for the rapid assembly of complex polycyclic skeletons, and the Stevens rearrangement of metallocarbene-derived ylides. Subsequent areas of interest have included the Nazarov cyclization, taxane synthesis and bioconjugate chemistry. (See the research description for a more detailed discussion of current research interests.) In 2002, Professor West moved to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he is currently Professor of Chemistry and Associate Chair (Research) of the department.

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

B.Sc., University of Arizona

Contact Information:

F. G. West

Associate Chair (Research)

Department of Chemistry

University of Alberta

E3-43 Gunning-Lemieux

Chemistry Centre

Edmonton, AB T6G 2G2

Canada

Office: W5-70D, Gunning/Lemieux Chemistry Centre

Phone: (780) 492-8187

Fax: (780) 492-8231

Email: frederick.west@ualberta.ca

Awards and Honors:

2012-2013     Teacher of the Year Award, University of Alberta Chemistry Students’ Association

2011               Alfred Bader Award, Canadian Society for Chemistry

2009               Faculty of Science Award for Excellent Teaching, University of Alberta

2005-2006     Chemistry Students’ Association Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Alberta

2004-2005     Chemistry Students’ Association Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Alberta

1998-1999     University Professor, University of Utah

1994-1995     American Cyanamid Faculty Award

1993-1994     Eli Lilly Grantee

1992               Robert W. Parry Teaching Award, Department of Chemistry, University of Utah

1991-1994     American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award

1990               Chemistry SAC Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, University of Utah

1986-1988     National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, Columbia University

1981-1984     National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison

1980-1981     Samuel M. McElvain Distinguished Teaching/Research Assistantship, University of Wisconsin

1979-1980     Tartarian Scholarship, University of Arizona

1979               Dreyfus Summer Scholar Fellowship, University of Chicago

1976-1978     Robert Nugent Scholarship, University of Arizona