SCIENCE
Stanford honors William S. Johnson With the recent presentation of the first annual William S. Johnson Symposium in Organic Chemistry, Stanford University honored the man who might well be called the father of the modern Stanford chemistry department. The two-day symposium, which attracted about 250 participants from around the world, featured talks by six prominent organic chemists, including Johnson himself. It was organized by Stanford chemistry professors Carl Djerassi and Paul A. Wender, and sponsored by the chemistry department and the Industrial Affiliates Program of Stanford's chemistry and chemical engineering departments. As Djerassi noted in his welcoming comments, "Johnson created the modern chemistry department at Stanford." Johnson was recruited from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 as executive head of Stanford's chemistry department. In that day, department heads were autonomous, and Johnson was almost completely responsible for the early recruiting effort. He brought Djerassi with him from Wisconsin in 1960. In 1961, he recruited Paul Flory and Henry Taube, both of whom subsequently won Nobel prizes in chemistry. Among the other chemists he brought on board were Eugene E. van Tamelen, Harden M. McConnell, John I. Brau-
man, and James P. Collman. In Djerassi's words, "In six or seven years, Johnson converted a good department into a great one." Johnson also has had a distinguished career as an organic chemist, which was noted by the symposium speakers. He developed synthetic methods for making polycyclic natural· products, particularly via biomimetic polyene cyclization. Recently, he became active in developing asymmetric synthesis methodology. "Johnson's syntheses are near to perfection," said Albert Eschenmoser, chemistry professor at Eidgenôssische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Eschenmoser's criterion for such a judgment is that at certain critical steps in a complex synthesis, specific conformational changes occur without the need for "instructions from outside." In other words, the synthesis "sets the stage for self-assembly of the molecules." Eschenmoser cited Johnson's synthesis of steroids as one example of that idea. The other speakers at the symposium were Konrad E. Bloch, chemistry professor at Harvard University; Derek H. R. Barton, chemistry professor at Texas A&M University; John D. Roberts, chemistry professor at California Institute of Technology; and Gilbert Stork, chemistry professor at Columbia University. Rudy Baum, San Francisco
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Djerassi (left), Johnson (middle), and Stork chat during symposium at Stanford November 3, 1986 C&EN
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