Synthetic Organic Chemistry and the Nobel Prize, Volume 2

The Nobel Prize is the highest award in science, as is the case with nonscience fields too, and it is, therefore, arguably the most internationally recognized award in the world. This unique set of volumes focuses on summarizing the Nobel Prize within organic chemistry, as well as the specializations within this specialty. Any reader researching the history of the field of organic chemistry will be interested in this work. Furthermore, it serves as an outstanding resource for providing a better understanding of the circumstances that led to these amazing discoveries and what has happened as a result, in the years since.

Dr. John G. D’Angelo earned his BS in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2000. While at Stony Brook, he worked in Prof. Peter Tonge’s lab on research toward elucidating the mechanism of action of FAS-II inhibitors for anti-mycobacterium tuberculosis drugs. He was also an active member of the chemistry club, serving as its treasurer for a year. After graduating, he worked as a summer research associate at Stony Brook in Prof. Nancy Goroff’s lab, working toward the synthesis of molecular belts. He then earned his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2005, working in the laboratories of Michael B. Smith. There, Dr. D’Angelo worked on the synthesis of 2-nucleobase, 5-hydroxymethyl lactams as putative anti-HIV agents while also investigating the usefulness of the conducting polymer poly-(3,4-ethylinedioxy thiophene) as a chemical reagent. He served as a teaching assistant during most of his five years at UCONN and was awarded the Outstanding TA award during one of these years.

After completing his PhD, he took a position as a postdoctoral research associate at The Johns Hopkins University in Prof. Gary H. Posner’s lab. There, Dr. D’Angelo worked on the development of artemisinin derivatives as anti-malarial and anti-toxoplasma gondii derivatives. In 2007, Dr. D’Angelo accepted a position at Alfred University at the rank of Assistant Professor, and in 2013, he was awarded tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor at Alfred and awarded promotion to Professor in July 2021. Dr. John G. D’Angelo’s research continued for a while to focus on the chemical reactivity of conducting polymers and has been expanded to pedagogical research and scientific ethics; the latter two now the focus of his research efforts. He served as the local ACS section (Corning) chair in 2014 and 2021 and as the Faculty Senate president for two consecutive terms serving in this capacity from 2014 to 2018 and became Chair of the Chemistry Division at Alfred in 2021.

He is also the author of four books. One, on scientific misconduct, is in its second edition, and the second book on scientific misconduct is intended to be a workbook with hypothetical cases that students can work through. The third book, written with his PhD advisor, outlines a process for using the chemical search engine Reaxys to teach reactions, and the fourth book is a now discontinued organic chemistry textbook published through the web-based publisher Top Hat. He is also an author of 13 peer-reviewed publications (three in his independent career) and two patents. This four-volume series on organic chemistry and the Nobel Prize is his latest authoring endeavor.