22nd Biannual: John Eisch Lectureship In
Organic Chemistry
Friday, November 6, 2026
4 P.M.
Smart Energy Building, Fountain Room
Professor Michael J. Krische
Robert A. Welch Chair in Science
Department of Chemistry
University of Texas at Austin
Hydrogen Transfer for Catalytic C-C Coupling beyond Premetalated Reagents
C-C bond formations that traditionally require stoichiometric organometallic reagents or metallic reductants can be conducted catalytically through the addition, transfer or redistribution of hydrogen. Metal-catalyzed hydrogenation or transfer hydrogenation enables reductive C=X addition or biaryl cross-coupling. In related hydrogen auto-transfer reactions, alcohols function as both reducing agents and carbonyl precursors to effect direct, byproduct-free conversion of lower alcohols to higher alcohols. The influence of metalcentered stereogenicity on regio-, stereo- and siteselectivity, and the application of these methods to polyketide total synthesis are highlighted.
- Information about Professor MichaelJ. Krische
Professor Michael
J. Krische is a second generation American from the lost Gottschee German ethnolinguistic enclave in former Yugoslavia. Professor Krische earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley (1989), where he performed research with Professor Henry Rapoport. After a year abroad as a Fulbright Fellow, he initiated doctoral studies at Stanford University with Professor Barry Trost as a Veatch Graduate Fellow. Upon receipt of his doctorate (1996), he joined the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Jean-Marie Lehn at the Université Louis Pasteur as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow. In 1999, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. He was promoted directly from assistant professor to full professor in 2004 and, in 2007, he was appointed to the Robert A. Welch Chair in Science.Professor Krische has pioneered the use of hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation for catalytic C-C bond formation beyond premetalated reagents. His research has been recognized by the NSF-CAREER Award (2000), Cottrell Scholar Award (2002), Eli Lilly Granteeship for Untenured Faculty (2002), Frasch Award in Chemistry (2002), Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2003), Sloan Fellowship (2003), Johnson & Johnson Focused Giving Award (2005), Solvias Ligand Prize (2006), Presidential Green Chemistry Award (2007), ACS Corey Award (2007), Dowpharma Prize (2007), Novartis Lectureship (2008), Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award (2009), Humboldt Senior Research Award (2009-2011), Mukaiyama Award (2010), GlaxoSmithKline Scholar Award (2011), ACS Cope Scholar Award (2012), JSPS Fellow (2013), Eun Lee Lectureship Award, Korea (2015), Royal Society of Chemistry, Pedler Award (2015), American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (2017), Ta-Shue Chou Lectureship Award, Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2019), ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2020), Honorary Membership in the Israeli Chemical Society (2022), Palladium Global Science Award (2025), and the Yamada-Koga Prize (2025).
- Information about Professor John J. Eisch
John Joseph Eisch joined the Department of Chemistry at Binghamton University in 1972, as chair and professor of chemistry, with the mandate of fostering the national reputation of its graduate teaching and research. Over the next six years as chair, he guided the recruiting of six senior and junior faculty with this goal in mind, while expanding his own research in organometallic chemistry to a yearly group of eight to 12 graduate and postdoctoral students, with support from federal and industrial resources. In 1983, his composite achievements were recognized by his promotion to the SUNY-wide rank of distinguished professor of chemistry. Further recruiting, notably during the chair tenure of professors Eugene Stevens, Alistair Lees, Wayne Jones and currently, Eriks Rozners, expanded the scope of advanced research into areas of immediate importance, such as nano materials, homogeneous catalysis, analytical sensors, biological transformations and energy storage.
Eisch received the BS degree in chemistry, summa cum laude, from Marquette University in 1952; earned the PhD degree in 1956, with Henry Gilman, at Iowa State University; and served as Union Carbide Research Fellow with Karl Ziegler at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, Germany (1956–57). After junior professional appointments at St. Louis University and the University of Michigan, he became ordinary professor and department head at the Catholic University of America (1963–1972). He retired from his professorial career of 57 years in 2014, the latter 42 years of which were spent at Binghamton University.
The Eisch Group initially had concentrated on the preparation and organic synthetic uses of organometallic reagents of Li, Na, Mg, B and Al, but we were struck by the lack of definitive molecular mechanistic studies in previous work. In ensuing research encompassing reaction kinetics, trapping of any intermediates, IR, UV and X-ray crystallographic measurements, both heterolytic and homolytic C-M cleavages could be involved, as well as 4-centertrapesoidal transition states. Reviews are available in a) “Fifty Years of Ziegler- Natta Polymerization: From Serendipity to Science,” Organometallics, 2012, 31, 4917–4932 and b) Dalton Transactions, (DOI: 10:1039/c4dt010362) “Emergence of Electrophilic Alumination as the Counterpart of Established Nucleophilic Lithiation.” The original seven articles dealing with the reactions of RLi with the azomethyne groups have been recently published by the Eisch and the Rheingold Crystallographic Group in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Over the years, the research involved the fruitful collaboration of more than 200 students as master’s, doctoral, postdoctoral or baccalaureate associates. The results have been reported in more than 410 scientific publications, in some 280 invited lectures worldwide, in the monograph “The Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds” (Macmillian, 1967) and in the edited series, “Organometallic Syntheses” (four volumes, J. J. Eisch and R. B. King, authors and editors). He has been an industrial consultant on organometallic chemistry and an expert witness in several patent litigations on Ziegler-Natta polymerization catalysis.
One of the significant discoveries of our studies is that the reaction of organic carbanionic reagents is not a one-step nucleophilic C alpha attack (i) but a two-step electrontransfer and electron-coupling process (ii)(iii).
- Previous Lectureship Recipients
2012
Stephen L. Buchwald - MIT
“Palladium-Catalyzed CarbonNitrogen and Carbon-Carbon Bond-Forming Reactions: Progress, Applications and Mechanistic Studies”
2013
David W. C. MacMillan - Princeton University
“The Use of Photoredox Catalysis in New Organic Bond Forming Reactions”
2014
Brian M. Stoltz - California Institute of Technology
“Complex Natural Products as a Driving Force for Discovery in Organic Chemistry”
2015
Eric N. Jacobsen - Harvard University
“Anion-Binding Catalysis”
2016
Bob Crabtree - Yale University
“Organometallic Catalysis for Solar Fuels and Storage”Phil S. Baran - The Scripps Research Institute
“Translational Chemistry”
2017
Stephen J. Lippard - MIT
“Understanding and Improving Platinum Anticancer Drugs”Daniel A. Singleton - Texas A&M Uniersity
“Dynamic Effects and Energy Labeling in Free-Radical Reactions”
2018
Clifford P. Kubiak - University of California, San Diego
“If You Make a Solar Fuel From CO2, What Should It Be?”Scott E. Denmark - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Lewis-base Activation of Lewis Acids: An Evolving Paradigm for Catalysis in Main Group Chemistry"
2019
Professor Gregory C. Fu - California Institute of Technology "Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions: A Radical Alternative to SN1 and SN2 Reactions"
John F. Hartwig - University of California, Berkeley
"Selective, Catalytic Functionalization of C-H Bonds with Small and Large Catalysts"
2021
Professor Vern L. Schramm - Albert Einstein College of Medicine
"Enzymatic Transition States and Transition State Analogues"
2022
Karen Goldberg - University of Pennsylvania
"Molecular Oxygen as a Reagent in Late Transition Metal Organometallic Chemistry"
2023
Kendall N. Houk - University of California, Los Angeles "Pericyclic Reactions: Theory, Mechanisms, Dynamics and Role in Biology"
Polly L. Arnold - University of California, Berkeley
"F-Block Dinitrogen Chemistry; from Rarity to Catalysis in a Few Simple Steps"
2024
Professor Gregory H. Robinson - University of Georgia
"N-Heterocyclic Carbenes and Dithiolene Radicals: Counterintuitive Main Group Chemistry"
2025
Professor Melanie Sanford - Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Department of Chemistry University of Michigan
"Development of Metal-Catalyzed Reactions for Introducing Fluorine Into Organic Molecules"Dr. T. Don Tilley - University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Department of Chemistry
"Oxo Metal Clusters in Water Splitting and Bond Activations"Professor Tomislav Rovis - Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry Columbia University
"Redshifting Photoredox Catalysis"
2026
Claudia Turro - Chair and Dr. Melvin L. Morris Professor Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH "Excited States of Transition Metal Complexes for Applications in Solar Energy Conversion and Medicine"