Richard Heck（理查德·赫克）

1952届 1954哲学博士学位  化学先锋 诺奖获得者

他让分子变得神奇

理查德·赫克是UCLA第六位获得诺奖的校友，他开创了一种合成复杂碳分子的方法。这项技术广泛应用于生产抗癌药物、止痛药（包括吗啡）和工业产品如精细化学品和芳香剂。还有一件事：他们以这个前UCLA博士后的名字命名这个过程。“赫克反应”成为现代有机化学的支柱和研究人类基因组序列的关键。在20世纪60年代后期首次出版，这个新方法有着惊人的持久力：在过去十年间，数以万计的研究论文都引用了赫克的名字。

Richard Heck

Class of 1952, Ph.D. 1954

He made molecules miraculous.

The sixth UCLA alumnus to win a Nobel Prize, Richard Heck pioneered a method for synthesizing complex carbon molecules. The technique was widely adopted for producing possible anti-cancer drugs, analgesics (including morphine) and industrial products such as fine chemicals and fragrances. And one more thing: they named the process after the former Westwood postdoc. The “Heck reaction” has become a pillar of modern organic chemistry–and a key to the research that led to the sequencing of the human genome. First published in the late 1960s, the innovation has had amazing staying power: In the past decade, Heck’s name has been cited in literally thousands of research papers.