Alexei Demchenko, winner of the 2014 St Louis Award
Alexei Demchenko was born, raised, and educated in Moscow, Russia. He graduated in 1988 from Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia with a Diploma in Chemical Engineering before joining the laboratory of Nikolay Kochetkov at Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow. In 1993, he was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry for his work on the development of thiocyanate methodology for glycosylation. After two post-doctoral years under Professor Kochetkov, he joined Geert-Jan Boons’ group at the University of Birmingham (UK) as a BBSRC post-doctoral research fellow. In 1998 he moved with Professor Boons to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia (USA), as a research associate. In 2001 he joined the faculty at the University of Missouri–St Louis as an Assistant Professor where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007, Professor in 2011, and was appointed a University of Missouri Board of Curators’ Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2014.
Professor Demchenko has received a number of professional recognitions and awards, amongst which is a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (2005), a New Investigator Award from the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry (2007), and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creativity (2013). He has co-authored over 135 scientific articles, reviews, and book chapters; has edited two books; and has a number of pending patent applications. Professor Demchenko has been serving as a Subject Editor on natural products and chemical biology for Elsevier Reference Module in Chemistry, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Carbohydrate Chemistry, and a member of a number of editorial boards. He organized and chaired many international conferences and symposia and was elected to chair the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Carbohydrates.
Professor Demchenko’s research interests are in the area of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry and include: novel glycosylation methods; stereocontrol of the glycosidic bond formation; chemoselectivity and orthogonality of modern glycosyl donors; strategies for expeditious assembly of complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates; transition metal complexes in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry; synthetic vaccines and glycotherapeutics; and solid-phase and surface-assisted automated synthesis. His research program is currently funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Pfizer Inc., and Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience.
The Saint Louis Award, sponsored by the Monsanto Company and administered by the Saint Louis Section–ACS, is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry and demonstrated potential to further the advancement of the chemical profession. The award, consisting of a $1,500 honorarium and a plaque, is presented at the Saint Louis Award Banquet. Details on the St Louis Award symposium and banquet are finalized; plan on attending either or both of these premier events. (Reservations required for the banquet; see link for RSVP instructions.)
The awardee is selected by a review committee constituted by the Saint Louis Section–ACS.
“Computers and the physics of complex biological systems”
