David Evans

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David A. Evans went straight from Caltech to the faculty at UCLA, rising to full professor in 1973. He then returned to Caltech and remained as professor of chemistry until moving to Harvard in 1983. He completed a term as chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology in 1998. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, Evans has received numerous honors. He is noted for fundamental advances in the design of stereoselective reactions, and their applications to natural-products synthesis. His techniques are widely used in both industrial and academic labs throughout the world, and his group has synthesized more than 40 complex natural products. Evans has also played a major role as mentor to young academicians and scientists, and it is noteworthy that several dozen individuals have entered academia from his laboratory in the past decade and a half.