Brian M. Stoltz
Brian was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania with initial interests in music and mathematics, but fell in love with organic chemistry thanks to his advisor, Prof. John T. Wood. Following a year abroad working at Bayer AG in Germany and attending the Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich, he earned a dual B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in German in 1993 from IUP. After completion of his undergraduate studies, Brian attended graduate school at Yale University under the direction of John L. Wood. While at Yale, Brian completed the total syntheses of indolocarbazoles K252c, (+)-K252a, (+)-RK-286c, (+)-MLR-52, (–)-TAN-1030a, and (+)-staurosporine. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1997, Brian moved to Harvard as an NIH postdoctoral fellow with Prof. E. J. Corey where he developed an enantioselective synthetic route of nicandrenone natural products. Upon completion of his postdoctoral studies, Brian accepted a position at Caltech, where he is now Professor of Chemistry and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. His research group studies the design and development of new strategies in complex molecule synthesis.
Honors and Awards
• Fellow of the American Chemical Society, July 2019
• Chemical Society Reviews, Guest co-Editor, New Directions in Natural Product Synthesis, October 2018
• 2018 American Chemical Society, Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, August 2017
• 2017 John C. Cornforth Lecturer, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, September 2017
• 2017 Eun Lee Lectureship, Seoul National University, August 2017
• 2017 Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, California Institute of Technology, May 2017
• 2015-2016 A. H. Blatt Distinguished Lecturer, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, March 2016
• Mukaiyama Award, 2015
• Nankai University Lectureship, Nankai University, Tianjin, China, March 2012
• R. C. Fuson Visiting Professorship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, October 2011
• Caltech Academics and Research Committee (ARC) Professor of the Month, October 2011
• Lester S. Andrews Lecturer, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, May 2011
• Herbert C. Brown Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, April 2011
• Ta-shue Chou Lectureship Award, The Ta-shue Chou Foundation in conjunction with the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, February 2011
• Israel Chemical Society, Honorary Lifetime Member, 2010
• Schulich Visiting Professor Lectureship, Technion-The Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, 2010
• Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Organic Chemistry, 2010
• Teva USA Scholar Awardee, 2009-2012
• Givaudan-Karrer Distinguished Visiting Professor, Universität Zürich, 2009
• Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, 2010
• Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, 2009
• Elias J. Corey Award For Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator, 2009
• KAUST Global Research Investigator, 2008
• Elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2006
• Indiana University of Pennsylvania College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Alumni Ambassador Award, 2006
• The Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology 30th Annual Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2006
• Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, 2005
• Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, May 2005
• 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Freedom to Discover Award-Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
• Tetrahedron Asymmetry Special Issue-Asymmetric Oxidation Guest Editor with Matthias Beller, 2005
• Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), 2004 (for 2002)
• Novartis Chemistry Lectureship, 2004-2005
• AstraZeneca, Excellence in Chemistry Award, 2004
• Roche, Excellence in Chemistry Award, 2004
• Gerhard Closs Lectureship, University of Chicago, 2004
• Boehringer Ingelheim New Faculty Award, 2004
• Merck Research Laboratories Chemistry Council Research Award, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005
• Eli Lilly Grantee, 2004, 2005
• Inaugural 21st Century of Excellence (COE) Visiting Professor, Department of Chemistry, Univerity of Tokyo, Japan, Summer 2003
• Research Corporation Cottrell Scholars Award, 2003
• Amgen Young Investigator Award, 2003
• Tetrahedron Symposium-in-Print Guest Editor, 2003: New Synthetic Methods
• Johnson and Johnson Focused Giving Awardee, 2003, 2004 and 2005
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2003-2005
• Pfizer Research Laboratories Creativity in Synthesis Award, 2003 and 2004
• GlaxoSmithKline Chemistry Scholar Award, 2002 and 2003
• Abbott Laboratories New Faculty Award, 2002 and 2003
• Abbott Laboratories Lecturer, Montana State University, 2002
• National Science Foundation 2002 CAREER Award, November 2001
• Research Corporation 2002 Research Innovation Award, November 2001
• American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type G Award, November 2001
• Caltech Graduate Student Council Classroom Teaching Award, June 2001
• Caltech Graduate Student Council Mentoring Award, June 2001
• Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, July 2000
• National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, January 1998
• Wolfgang Prize for the outstanding thesis in chemistry, Yale University, May 1997
• American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry Fellow, Fall 1996
• Boehringer Ingelheim Fellow, Yale University, Summer 1996
• Bayer Fellow, Yale University, Spring 1996
• W.R. Grace Fellow, Yale University, Spring 1995
• Miles Fellow, Yale University, Fall 1994 and Fall 1995
• Cooke Teaching Award, Department of Chemistry Yale University, 1993-1994 academic year
• Samuel K. Bushnell Fellowship, Yale University, 1993-1994 academic year
• Summa Cum Laude, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, May 1993
• Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh College Chemistry Award recipient, May 1993
• Indiana University of Pennsylvania Chemistry Department Achievement Award 1989-1993
• McFarland Scholarship, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1990-1991 academic year