Steven Ley's Biography

Steven Ley, Professor, University of Cambridge

Professor Steven Ley has been the BP (1702) Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge since 1992. He was a lecturer at Imperial College in 1975, promoted to Professor in 1983, and Head of Department in 1989. In 1990 he was elected to the Royal Society (London) and was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2000-2002.

He has published over 730 papers and has gained 43 major awards including the Adolf Windaus Medal and August-Wilhelm-von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society; Paul Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis; Davy Medal from the Royal Society; Messel Medal and the Innovation award from the Society of Chemical Industry; Yamada-Koga Prize from the Japan Research Foundation for Optically Active Compounds; Perkin Prize, Robert Robinson Lecturership and Medal, High Throughput Drug Discovery Methodologies Award, Tilden Medal, Corday Morgan Medal, Pedlar Lectureship & Medal, Simonsen Lectureship & Medal, Flintoff Medal, Haworth Memorial Lecturship & Medal, Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry, Award for Organic Synthesis, Award for Natural Product Chemistry and Teamwork in Innovation Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, London; Nagoya Gold Medal from the Banyu Life Science Foundation International, Japan; Award for Creative work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, American Chemical Society; Paul Karrer Gold Medal, University of Zurich; Hans Herloff Inoffen Medal, Helmholtz Zentrum für Infectionsforschung, Germany; Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award, European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry; The Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry, Elsevier; Heinrich Wieland Prize, Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany; The Paracelsus Prize, Swiss Chemical Society; The Royal Medal, The Royal Society, London.

Professor Ley's work involves the discovery and development of new synthetic methods and their application to biologically active systems. The TPAP catalytic oxidant that is now used worldwide and cited extensively was one of his inventions. His group has published extensively on the use of iron carbonyl complexes, organoselenium chemistry, the use of microwaves in organic chemistry, biotransformations for