Elias James Corey
Corey, Elias James (1928 -) an American chemist, was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing retrosynthetic analysis, a process that simplifies the production of many complex compounds. His work has enabled manufacturers to make many drugs commercially available.
Corey was born William Corey, but after his father, Elias, died, his mother changed his name. He attended high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1945. He had no career plans, so his first courses were in basic science. He eventually decided to study chemistry. In 1950, at the age of 22, he completed his doctoral work and joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an instructor in chemistry. He was appointed assistant professor in 1954 and professor of chemistry in 1956. In 1961, Corey and Claire Higham married. The couple has three children.
In 1959, Corey accepted a position as professor of chemistry at Harvard. There he developed the concept of retrosynthetic analysis, a simple and repeatable analysis of problems in synthesizing compounds. With retrosynthetic analysis, a scientist can determine how a target molecule might be broken down into simpler, readily available compounds. The technique, which breaks down molecules in stages, making sure that at all times the parts can be reassembled, is valuable because it helps chemists make complex compounds such as drugs. Corey demonstrated that computers could greatly assist in the process. For his work on retrosynthetic analysis, Corey won the 1990 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
In addition to his Nobel Prize-winning work, Corey has synthesized about 100 natural products, including ginkgolide B, which is used to treat asthma, and prostaglandins, which are used to induce labor and treat infertility.