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US scientist residing in Philippines wins 2010 chemistry Nobel


An American scientist and longtime resident of the Philippines, Richard Heck, was named one of the winners Wednesday of the 2010 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his role in developing a chemical process for organic synthesis which is now widely used for a range of purposes, including the fields of medicine and electronics. Heck, 79, received the news of the Nobel prize in Tandang Sora, Novaliches, Quezon City, where he lives with his wife Socorro. A telephone interview with Heck, a tradition for new Nobel Laureates recorded for the official Nobel website, opened with a woman’s voice asking “Sino 'to?" (Who is this?) When the phone was passed to Heck, he told the interviewer that when he received the award, he was just “sitting in my house… not doing anything much." Heck said he chose to spend his retirement in the Philippines because of his wife, adding, “It’s a nice place." An Associated Press photograph of Heck kissing his wife after receiving word of his award has been the image which accompanies much of the news of his Nobel prize.

Interview with Richard Heck
Excerpts from the telephone interview of Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org, with Richard F. Heck immediately following the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 6 October 2010: Adam Smith: I gather we're calling you in the Philippines. Is that where you now live? Richard Heck: Yes, that's where we're living at the moment. AS: What were you doing when you heard the news? RH: I was sitting in my house... not doing anything much AS: [on palladium-catalyzed coupling approach] … remarkably, the series of papers you published on it were single-author papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. So one gathers you worked alone on this. RH: Yes, mostly. It just sort of happened that way. I didn't plan it. AS: The Heck reaction is, of course enormously, widely used nowadays. RH: I didn't have the impression that it happened suddenly, it was a slow development… I'm extremely grateful. It's a big surprise to me. I didn't expect it. I think there's a lot of chemistry still out there that will help develop this… I've not really kept up with things, but I think there's still a lot to be done. AS: When did you retire? RH: Four or five years ago. AS: What's your main pursuit these days? RH: I've just been enjoying life. AS: Why did you choose the Philippines? RH: My wife is Filipino... It's a nice place to live. AS: [any plans to celebrate?] RH: I'm just going to enjoy the feeling of having won… no plans for big celebrations. Source: Nobelprize.org
"I don't think this is going to change my life. I'm too old," he told reporters in a separate interview. Heck is now settled at his home in Quezon City, where he keeps an orchid garden and tends to pet birds. He added that he had no plans for big celebrations. “I’m just going to enjoy the feeling of having won." 'Art in a test tube' The Royal Academy of Sciences announced in Sweden that a trio of chemists, Heck and Japanese scientists Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, were being recognized for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross-couplings — one of the most sophisticated tools available today, used in scientific research worldwide. The process of carbon bonding is necessary for the synthesis of more complex molecules. Before Heck’s research, the methods used by chemists resulted in “too many unwanted by-products in their test tubes," according to the Nobel Prize press release, titled “Great Art in a Test Tube." Heck, Negishi, and Suzuki developed variants of a process of binding carbon atoms by using palladium as a catalyst. Their work is now instrumental in a broad range of applications, such as testing potential drugs for cancer, creating new antibiotics, breakthroughs in DNA sequencing, and making thinner computer screens, said the prize committee. $0.5 million prize The Nobel Prize comes with a $1.5 million award, which Heck will share with his two fellow researchers. Heck was born in 1931 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He obtained his degree in bachelor of sciences and his doctorate at the University of California Los Angeles. He worked for Hercules, an American chemical company, until he began teaching at the University of Delaware in 1971. It was during his time at Hercules, in the 1960s, that Heck engaged in research on palladium-catalyzed reactions, publishing several single-author papers in chemistry journals. Negishi and Suzuki would later develop variants of Heck’s method, in 1977 and 1979, respectively. Over four decades would pass before his work was awarded the Nobel prize. “It was a slow development," he said. In 1989, Heck retired from the faculty but remained as professor emeritus, and moved with his wife to the Philippines.
He is scheduled to deliver his Nobel lecture at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University, on December 8 this year. The Nobel Prizes began in 1901, after Alfred Nobel — a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite — died in 1896, leaving the bulk of his fortune towards the establishment of a series of awards in various fields. Nobel laureates receive their awards every year on the anniversary of Nobel’s death, on December 10. - VVP/YA, GMANews.TV
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